Suites and suits
by DawnAtSky
Summary: Karkat Vantas is the lead director at the ever popular software company Prospitian Tech. But days of incompetence wear his patience thin, and the new transfer to Dersite Tech has him on edge, and caught in a certain programmer's eyes. T for Karkat
1. Chapter 1

**Whoo! I am obsessed with Humanstuck stuffs. Hehe. Anyway, enjoy!**

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Sipping a full mug of coffee, Karkat Vantas glanced down at the world beyond his top-floor suite. Being the leader was no ordinary feat, but leading those insipid sacks of shit was too aggravating. Too aneurism-inducing. He would much rather lead a mosh pit full of intoxicated monkeys than those over-payed white shirt grunts who wasted their days in the office, coding away and dissolving into a vat of mass in front of their computers, and still managing to be late for almost every deadline he set. No, today was his last day there, and after the move he would ensure that he never had contact with them again.

Being that it was his last week at this suite, so many had already visited. From the 'friends' he had acquired during the last three years, to his ex-boyfriend begging for information on his new living requirements, to the countless assholes visiting for a recommendation to his position. They had had their sob stories. How they needed the job, whether for their likelihood with their boss or the extra thousand in their paychecks for their families.

It was always one thing or another with these ignoramus ballclingers, always some form of ass-kissing before he left. Karkat had a replacement already picked out, he was being transferred over from the next city, moving in his family, namely his father, to be able to take care of him. Who the fuck even invests in a nursing home anymore anyway? Surprisingly, John was actually an old friend. It's amazing how his pathetic mop of hair and those disgusting buck teeth hide the true genius and skill as a effective leader. It's surprised Vantas to no end.

Sitting back in his chair, Karkat stared up at the ceiling. He still hadn't changed out from his work clothes. He wore a white dress shirt under a black plaid sweater-vest and a now unruly dark red tie. His black hair stood up, messy against the black sofa-chair. This and his queen-sized mattress were the only pieces of furniture not packed up or already moved. The kitchen supplies he'd need were in a box on the counter. But his fridge was packed up, so it's not like he would even try to cook something now. No, he'd live on leftover pizza and chinese food, a reminder of college life.

Ah to be twenty-six and working in this high-class company. Karkat was a born leader, it's no surprise how well life has been to him. His father was a politician, go figure. Half russian on his mother's side, Karkat's pale skin almost glowed in this lighting. Why the lights were off, and the moonlight was the only illumination in the entire fucking room was beyond him. Honestly, he was that lazy right now. It worked, so whatever.

Sipping his coffee – coffee he had to buy and pour into his red mug, mind you – he couldn't help but space off and stare into the ever luminescent gray wall with a mild boredom. He had already wasted a few hours doing this, right after Strider dropped off a customary farewell bottle of vodka. Not like he even drank alcohol.

Odd, he remembered hearing Dirk mention that his brother ran a club in the town he was moving to. Hmm.

"You just gonna thit there until you waste away to nothing?"

Karkat didn't even budge, or jump or anything. He had so many visitors today, many of them never even bothering to call first. What was so wrong with calling first? It's a proper, common courtesy goddamnit. Standing up, he glanced back expectantly at the Japanese programmer across the room.

Sollux Captor. Sollux fucking Captor. One of the most notoriously late programmers on John's team of lazy fucking assholes. The two of you were old internet friends back in the day, chatting away the hours on Pesterchum, playing MMO's together and sharing a room at the university for all three months until he got so fucking tired of him bringing his girlfriend home and having sex in their damn shared dorm room. This idiot used to be his best friend back in the day. Since graduating he apparently lost his girlfriend, not like he believed what John said anyway, and got a job as one of those pencil-pushers at the sister company yours truly would now be working at.

So why the hell was he here?

Apparently, Karkat's replacement was also John's. This nooktainted fucknub was soon going to be his subordinate. And he heard the stories of his work ethic. Always late with his reports, and portions of code. The cause of many failed partitions, and beautifully completed, perfect scripts. A perfectionist in the most innocent essence, and a code tester's worst nightmare. Sollux, his old friend, and the disgusting sex fiend as he knew him, would now be working under the cancer's iron rule. He was going to be _lots_ of fun to work with.

He figured he might as well give him a proper greeting. Placing his mug on the coffee table, he leaned against the chair and sized up his visitor thoroughly before even beginning to comment.

Captor was freaking tall, so fucking tall it was obnoxious. And lanky, his short black hair framed his face nicely, that poignant smirk etched into his skin. The gemini bee-freak at least wasn't too difficult to look at, from this angle, a stick figure in the stick figure Men's Health magazine. He was slumped over right now, an obvious sign of bad posture. He wore a faded yellow jacket with black striped sleeves over a dirty black t-shirt with his astrological sign etched onto it it pale yellow, and baggy jeans folded up at the ends. Like he used to in college, the shoes where mismatched, black and white.

Sollux's hair was short, bunched up at both ends with sideburns framing his, amazingly, clean-shaven face. He wore those stupid red and blue glasses, a staple in his so-called fashion. Sure, it looked funny, and kind of ironic since he's an avid programmer, but it didn't help him to not come off as an enormous tool. Karkat stood tall (as much as 5'4 would allow) with his arms at his side, his own nice figure showing off through the professional work-attire. Not a six-pack, but not chubby either.

"Why the fuck not? Nothing to do until the move." He finally responded, as Sollux straightened his back in response, only managing to show off just how tall he truly was. Damned tall people.

"Why not visit your friendth?" Oh god that lisp. He remembered that fucking lisp. "I see you already have the booze." Karkat scoffed at his misinterpretations, like always Sollux had the wrong image of him. It was a quality definitely not shared in this case. Karkat already knew how much of an obnoxious worm this bastard was going to be, and this was the first time he had seen him in five years.

"That 'booze' is the off-handed farewell gift of one of my so-called friends, you cocky dimwit. And why the fuck are you here, anyway? Egbert not want to make my move from this horribly pathetic city any more intolerable than it needs to be?" As yes, the spouts of insults were back. Not since he yelled and fussed with his co-workers today at his farewell party did he have to blatantly call out the idiocy in another's notions oh-so clearly. He almost missed it. Sollux rolled his eyes, something he would soon find happened often for both parties.

"No, he just figured you needed to say goodbye to your friendth in some cheesy, overdramatic way, and figured it was a good opportunity for me to get to know my new bosth." He caught the slacking perfectionist staring at his midriff in the moment the Cancer stretched his arms over his head. Oh, he caught it very quickly. "Though, I'm amazed you even have friends."

"At least I have manners." Karkat spat back. What an asshole, interrupting his day of sitting on his ass staring at the wall to pester him. "Didn't you ever head of calling before a visit, Captor?" The bee eyed him suspiciously, even through those damned 3-D glasses, he could tell by his eyebrows raised up suspiciously. Very suspicious.

"Oh. Tho you do remember me."

"Who could anyone forget that obnoxious fucking lisp?"

"...Good to see you too, KK." He snickered at him. That fucking obnoxious ehehe snicker. Fuck his obnoxious ehehe snicker. "Haven't talked since college."

"Yes, like I _really_ would want to associate myself with the nookstain that had sex with his arrogant rich girlfriend in my. Fucking. Bed." Ooh, Sollux flinched at that one. Asshole, of course he remembered that. Worst roommate ever. "And, to top it all off, I'll be your new lead director, too. I suppose what goes around comes around."

"Didn't take you as the type to hold a grudge that far." Karkat smirked, widely. Obviously when it came to work, he would never use something embarrassing like that against him, or even bring it up. It was just kind of a sore subject for him. College was awkward; discovering his sexuality, finding his tall roommate very attractive, and then the eventual polyamorous experimentation/relationships with Terezi Pyrope and his other best friend. Oh yes, that was humiliating and degrading enough.

Well, it didn't take long to settle his sexuality after Gamzee. Not long enough. And with his mess of a room slowly becoming Sollux's chamber of heterosexual sex, he had to get the fuck out. That last night of him and Peixis doing it in _his_ bed, and walking in on it, yeah, he was pretty fucking sure he was a homosexual after that moment. And pretty sure he needed a new roommate. So instead he moved in with one Equius Zahhak, go figure, and his annoying as fuck little sister. It was still the better option.

"Listen, I don't give a fuck about your love life, Captor. Just keep up with my work schedule and we should get along just fine." He explained, stretching out again. As his shirt hiked up even the slightest bit, the cancer was testing his earlier observation. And yes, Sollux was indeed staring at him at any moment he could get. He was checking him out in a blatantly obvious way. He could almost see his eyes glued to his frame, through those annoying 3-D glasses, undressing him with those eyes, imagining diiirty thoughts. Heh, maybe he was over thinking it a little.

"We'll thee about that." He sounded cocky, and overconfident. Karkat didn't like that. Sollux was still overwhelmingly attractive, and as far as the cancer cared to observe, must not be attached at the hip to his finicky – oh god was that a fish pun? – little girlfriend. "I just so happen to be very particular with my work conditionth."

Karkat scoffed at his little attempts to intimidate his new boss. "Particular as in always late. John already warned me." Sollux must have thought he could control this new boss with a few eyebrow waggles and cocky words. Egbert may fall prey to a plan like that, but Karkat was not so easy. He wasn't going to let some flirty jackass get the better of him when it came to his leadership role.

Blood-red eyes stared into the frames as Sollux finally approached him, reaching out to fix the tie he oh-so easily forgot about. Slowly re-adjusting the wanton accessory, he glanced in just how easily the cancer tensed up at his subordinate and his damn six-foot whatever height overshadowing him. Tensed up, but not budging. He wasn't going to take the advantage of him with those soft hands caressing his-Oh god was he flirting with him? When his ex was due back any seco-

"W-Who the _fuck_ is this." Oh god damnit.

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Two guesses on who the fuck THAT is! **Smirks.**

**EDIT: OH MY FUCKING GOD I'M SORRY! SO MANY TYPOS...  
**


	2. Watch the cape

Holy shit, seven reviews. –Hides- Sorry the update took so long. First my older computer was working fine, then I had to switch to a new one, then I had to get this story back from my files. Geez it's been difficult. I feel like this chapter is a little rushed, so sorry in advanced.

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As if the tense silence could get any more awkward, his fucking ex shows up out of nowhere, catching the two in a seemingly scandalous position... From his view anyway. The tall yellow jacket caressing the short crabby ex's cheek, hovering above him in a hot position of longing and lust. Once again, it's for the viewer to perceive. That's just what it looked most like to Ampora at the moment.

Ah yes, the sappy, whiny prince of bad pick-up lines and dorky hipster glasses. Seriously, those black frames were not a good compliment to his... Fuck it, he's a fashion disaster waiting to happen. That overly styled brown hair perfectly accentuating the purple-dyed strand of hair right between his eyes. The huge bright blue eyes, and his European lightly tanned face speckled in freckles. His face was the only thing that attracted Karkat four years ago. Now it only served to disgust him.

He was yet another tall asshat, about Sollux's height actually. But the awkward silence couldn't go on for much longer, and Karkat had a feeling it had nothing to do with him. They were staring at each other, Sollux's hands still on his face. (And actually doing a good job at hiding his flushed cheeks.) Not helping, but not hindering. They were staring at each other in complete silence until Eridan finally spoke up, shoulders hiked up defensively.

"W-well? The fuck are you ewen doin', Sol?" Huh, they knew each other? Not like Karkat was that surprised, any hot tall smart guy would most likely be hit on by this jerkoff. Wait, did he just call him hot? Uh, yeah. Sollux snickered yet again before even responding.

"Oh you know, just seducthing my new boss." His cocky attitude was so fucking obnoxious, he didn't even bat a fucking eye and Eridan let out a low growl, finally going to stare at Karkat, for all of two seconds. "What are you doing here, fishdick?"

"Rude." He called, arms crossed. "I w-was just... you know-w w-what? I don't ewen need to answ-wer to you!" he spat, arms crossed over his black turtleneck and purple striped scarf. His wide black frames slipped down his button nose as he spat, glaring death daggers at the seductive bee. "W-wait. New boss?" Eridan's eyes instantly fell back to Karkat, like staring into the eyes of a cheating boyfriend or something. Yeah, they dated for two years. Two. Years. Ago. Eridan was way too clingy for his own good. "Kar..."

"Face it ED, this hot piece of ass is mine, now." Sollux quipped, snaking an arm around his shoulders. "Didn't know you had him. I guesth you have better tastes than I imagined." Eridan let out a low growl, his hands curled into fists. He really looked like he was going to start screaming at the guy while Sollux just stayed there and made impossible claims to what wasn't going to be his. Like he was going to jump him and rip his larynx out through his nostrils.

Yeah, this had to stop. A loud snap had both men's attention, Karkat took some amount of pleasure in the fact that they both jumped. Like they forgot Karkat was completely there at all. He smacked Sollux's arms away non-nonchalantly, stepping back to give himself some distance. "Bulgesniffers, please. By all means, continue this little bitch fight over abso-fucking-lutely nothing. I'll be sure to drag the loser down the stairs to the garbage chute." he said, arms crossed. "Eridan. What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

"Kar..." Ampora whined to him, so pathetically. It used to be the only thing Karkat could stand of his voice, besides some other unmentionable sounds that he also found sexy. Now it just wouldn't cease to grind down his auditory nubs. "You need to giwe me your new-w address still." Oh what a laugh. Karkat would laugh so much if he didn't practically feel the tension around him, revolving around him like some love-sick cupid on crack, yet still seeming to not be directly about him. Confusing.

"Who the hell said I would?" Yes, that painful stare, his resolutions melting into a hopeless heap of pathetic in front of their very eyes. "Eridan, we're through. He have been for **two years**." Crossing his arms, he let that brilliant piece of truth sink in, going back to Sollux. "And who said you could claim me, you buzzing lispy douche bag?"

"Obviously, me." Sollux had the gall to answer just now, didn't he? Oh, that's it.

Karkat cleared his throat, once again catching both of their attention."Let me clear the air right fucking now. I am not anyone's. You hear me. I **don't** have sex with the pricks I work with, and even then I am not that easy. _Seducthing your boss_ isn't going to fucking happen." Silence. Yeah, Karkat was offended, yeah Ampora did have a sarcastic 'oh really' look on his face, and yeah, Sollux looked almost as defeated as Eridan. Wonderful.

"W-wow-w, pathetic Sol." Eridan mumbled, arms crossed as he pouted through his hateful glance. He earned at spiteful glare from them both as another awkward silence fell over the group. No, Karkat wasn't having any of it. No more awkwardness.

"Both of you, get the fuck out. I'm going to get some food." Karkat ordered. His rage-induced behavior faded almost as soon as it arrived. There was no point in wasting his time with these repulsive excuses for men. "And I swear to god Ampora, don't even say anything. I'm done with you." He caught him just about to speak. Probably to ask him out or something. Nope, not going to happen. Not after last month... He didn't even need his jacket, he was too warm as is. No, he left them both in the room, and thought he could get away and remain in silence to think and wind down this developing migraine.

But Sollux must have followed after him, and as much as he tried to prevent it, they were now stuck in a long elevator ride together. Although, Sollux was back to keeping his hands to himself, thank god. "What the fuck was that about, Captor? Did you seriously think I was that shallow?" He flinched again, hands in his pocket. That ashamed look he had was almost cute. Almost.

"Thorry. I...wasn't planning on being so forward. It'th just..." He let out a heavy sigh. "That was my ex."

Karkat froze, glaring up at him. Talk about weird, but it did explain a few things. "So you figured you'd play the gay chicken game to show off your non-existent prize? Yeah, that doesn't work on other homosexuals. More or less it's more proof that your attempts are more legitimate than you want." Karkat crossed his arms. "And not something I'm going to accept."

Sollux glanced away finally, and he sighed again. "Yeah. Figured, after that. That kinda sucks." he mumbled. Funny, he was overconfident a few seconds ago, and now he's this nervous wreck? Weird.

"What, no counter to that 'your ass is mine now' claim you made in front of Eridan? No complaints about the not doing your work associate policy I have?" Karkat said, arms crossed. Sollux almost looked offended, before realizing that, yeah, he did that just then. They didn't say a single thing until they reached the bottom floor, and it was pretty fucking awkward. As they went for the door, Sollux was about to just walk away, probably back to his hotel, before the cancer spoke again. "And where the hell do you think you're going?"

He jumped before glancing over, spotting yet another annoyed glance from his boss. This little glance also seemed... disappointed? A little upset? "Back to my hotel, obviouthly." His face contorted to one of disapproval. A glance he would have to get used to. "What. You told me to get out."

"I told you to get out of my suite. And you did. I didn't say you could leave just yet." He crossed his arms before starting up again. "Ampora is a given, I intentionally don't want to see his ugly mug ever again. But you're a different story. I have to deal with you." That wasn't sarcasm. Why was it not so convincing?

"I don't know whether to bee offended or appreciated." Sollux said, the smirk returning. Why was he... Bee. Fuck, he was still in the pun stage? Karkat spent all of five minutes grumbling, standing there like an idiot with his mouth hanging open, trying to block the stupid out of his mind. He didn't do a very good job at it.

And Sollux had other plans. If Karkat was going to stand there like a turkey in a rainstorm, than he was going to choose where to enjoy some fine-quality dining. And of course, that meant going to the worst Italian Restaurant in this fucking town. Karkat had managed to keep up with him alright, although there was some obvious silence in before finally snapping out of it.

"I can't fucking believe you got a job at Dersite." He was back to normal, pretty much. It seemed like the idiocy aneurism he just suffered through reminded him of that little fact. Sollux however, was the king of all programmers in that dump of an office. He made all of the best code. All of it. So much so that it was always a threat to the company. But Sollux had no reason to deviate from his work schedule after hacking into the system and 'suggesting' some changes in his paycheck.

It wasn't much, but he was making more than the other nameless grunts. So he could take some amount of pleasure in that one. Plus, getting to meet his old roommate again, and just finding out how hot he was now? Yeah, that was an extra-special bonus. "I happen two bee the best damn worker in that company, KK." Aaaand he was back to using his old pet name for him. Great, way to flirt even more than needed, Captor.

The puns only seemed to delay the inevitable what-have-you-been-doing-lately discussion. They hadn't seen each other in five years, and the two of them used to be best friends, basically. And then college kicked in. What a tumultuous time that was. "So how was college for you? Besides being a denizen of chaos and sexual activity, you know." Right, he forgot about that. Yeah, crazy times.

"Ehh, not too bad. It wasn't at all like high school. But I guess with all the drama from high school came back to bite me in the fucking ass before graduating." He shrugged again. He does that a lot, as far as the other had noticed. "Kinda missed hanging out with you after you moved out." He added with his head down. Yeah, seem more pathetic than you need to.

"Yeah. It was still better than having to sleep in that bed…" Karkat muttered. Of course he wasn't going to finish that statement outright. He wasn't even sure that Sollux even heard it. (He did, he just chose to ignore it.) Karkat went on about mentioning having to live with Equius, and lightly mentioning Nepeta before they arrive at the place. Mia Roma's. Okay, so it wasn't the worst Italian food place. It was alright. Kind of sucked.

"We're eating here?" Karkat says, raising an eyebrow in confusion. But Sollux wouldn't take no for an answer, he already had the door open and everything. This thing was happening. Yes. It. Was. Why did this suddenly seem like a date?

Well fuck.

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Hehe, see, rushed. Anyway, sorry about the typo last chapter. C: Sollux really jumped the gun on this one, didn't he? "Just seducthing my boss, don't mind me!"

BTW I'm thinking about writing a single chapter sub-story about Karkat and Eridan's relationship. I've been having strange Erikat feelings lately. Iunno. I have a very particular way of typing out his quirk in speech.

Just some side info here: Sollux and Karkat are both 26, Karkat has a Bachelors. Majored in technical communication and minored in business. Sollux has a Bachelors as well, same major but he minored in engineering. Eridan is 25, and went back to school to get a PhD in (Intentionally hiding that little fact. Hehe.) Karkat is half Russian on his mother's side. Sollux is Japanese. Eridan is European, his parents mainly from Norway and England. Sollux's glasses are more than just for show, his eyesight is terrible. Eridan's are just for show. (reading glasses.) Karkat occasionally wears reading glasses as well, but doesn't need them.


	3. Pass the pepper

**Woot!**

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So what exactly do you do when your previous best friend who kind of ruined college for you suddenly ends up working for you, and he's hitting on you oh-so obviously at the same time? What exactly happens when all of this ends up with your ex, also being his ex, convinces you to leave your top suite condo? And what happens when the flirty programmer decides to take advantage of the moment and makes it sort of a date at a bad Italian restaurant, the kind of place you tend to avoid since you can't eat too much of that kind of food anyway?

You just deal with it. That's right ladies and gentleman, you just sit there and deal with the weird confusion, and awkwardness, and aggression as you try and figure out which dishes aren't going to make you wish your stomach didn't hate you as much as every other part of you. Sollux had his choice picked out minutes ago, and you're still in-between choices, unfortunately.

"So, what are you getting again?" Karkat asked, eyebrows raised questioningly. He had already asked this when they arrived, and Sollux already told him, without hesitating at all.

"Their lasagna dish, and maybe a beer or something." He shrugged. Alright, he already ordered wine for the two of them, why did he need more alcohol to satiate his thirst? Karkat had settled for some fruity tea shit, saying that he might have some of the red wine they both had to share, if the lush didn't drink it all.

"Right." He grumbled, taking a sip of tea slowly. Karkat gnawed on the straw as he drank, a bad habit he never got over. As the server came back for the fifth time, he just chose some fettuccine alfredo shit with a medium salad and went back to his tea. As the lady left, he caught a glance at her name tag, Dawny Abettor. Weird last name, then again, his wasn't any more common. She had a nice ass, too. Too bad Karkat didn't go for chicks anymore.

Sollux in the meantime poured them both a decent amount of wine, sipping away happily. He hadn't said much since they got there. Honestly, Karkat didn't want to talk either. He hesitated to even dare it, but picking up the glass, Karkat stirred around the red liquid, sipping away at the thick-flavored beverage. The flavors from his tea mixed well with it, enough to drown out the fizzle of alcohol. He couldn't complain about the taste, it was alright. "Like it?" Sollux snickered, leaning back in his seat. "You keep staring at it."

"And that automatically fuels your little conclusion that I like it? That's kind of a convoluted way of thinking." Karkat set the glass down, crossing his arms. "I just prefer not to get completely drunk every time I go eat somewhere. I wake up naked and in some horny hobo's arms less often." Captor snickered again, shaking it off to take a huge swig of beer, in spite of him.

"I can hold my alcohol pretty well, I'm not even buzzed." He sounded almost cocky about that, it seemed so illogical.

"If this is the reason why you're always late with your deadlines, my new position at Dersite Tech is going to be a breeze." He scoffed, setting down the bottle, finally, an angle in this awkward conversation that Karkat can actually be confident about. "Seriously, some AA could do some wonders for you. May even help your productivity."

"I don't drink when I'm working, asshole." He snapped back, glaring right back at him. "And even when I am coding, I actually do get less errors when I'm drunk off my ass." Karkat had to roll his eyes at that one. That sounded so far-fetched, too egotistic to even be a thing. No, he'd have to see it himself to even consider the possibility.

"So, enlighten me Captor, why exactly are you the nightmare worker of every project manager Derse has thrown at you?" he asked. Sollux shrugged, and tried to let the issue die as their first course arrive. Karkat's salad and a customary cup of soup for the lush. It was a nice gesture. Karkat planned to let him eat a little before asking again, until he glanced back over to the jackass bowing his head and praying before he started on his sub-par bowl of watery shit.

He had no idea Sollux was religious. Hmm. Well, it was rude to interrupt something like that, so he just started stuffing his face with ranch-covered leafy rabbit food instead.

So, one awkward meal later, which mostly entailed of small talk and Karkat playing with his food while sipping down wine, the two finally got to the typical 'who's going to pay' argument. Honestly, the cancer hadn't even thought about it until Sollux pulled out a credit card. Oh no, he already made it seem like a date with the pleasant meal, and everything. No, Sollux wasn't going to win this little competition. "Put that thing away, I'm paying."

"Hell no, I chose the place." Sollux placed the card on the table, crossing his arms. "Just let me be a nice guy and pay for dinner."

"Fuck no! Nice guys chose the place and sit their asses down to accept their boss buying them food." Pulling the boss card already. Good tactic Vantas. It didn't even affect Sollux though, in fact that permanent grin got wider because of that.

"You aren't my boths yet." Oh god the cocky attitude was back, Karkat could compete with this though, too. Sollux wasn't the only convincing one. It was a matter of pride now. He had to associate some kind of dominance or Sollux would walk all over him. Obviously when they started work. Yeah, that kind of sounded bad, damnit. "Tho, I'm paying."

"I'm not arguing this little point anymore, Sollux. Arguing this little point is like shitting on a cat and tossing it out into sea. Flinging pointless reasons at me isn't going to work, so just sit there and accept me paying for dinner." A devious little idea flicked through his he spied the card still on the table. Karkat glared into equally glaring eyes, a mental battleground of bright red and yellow. This little stalemate wasn't going anywhere. Not until Karkat brought out his newest trump card. Standing up, he walked right over to the other, hovering over him with bright red eyes, glaring down in silence.

He stayed there for a little bit before Sollux laughed. "Ith this supposed to intimidate me, KK?" He taunted, smirking up. He was just about to get up, probably to mimic the notion and gain an advantage in this little fight before the other acted. He turned his head away until Karkat brought cupped his chin, pulling his face back, hetero-chromatic orbs widening through the straight shot bright red, peering with direct eye contact. He was speechless, his jaw would have dropped if Karkat wasn't holding it now. He even caught a light pink blush flaring up along the other's cheeks.

Aaaand just like that Karkat swiped his co-worker's card and walked off to the cash register, leaving only confusion and a middle finger in the air. Yeah, he won this argument. Gracefully.

Sollux's jaw dropped finally, watching Karkat so easily use his own grey credit card to pay the overpriced fifty dollar fee for the meal. That jackass!

A jackass with a nice ass. Damnit!

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**Sorry for the short chapter guys, the next one is going to be pretty long, I hope. If anyone can get why that waitress' name is specified, you get a cookie! Hehe**


	4. The taxi brings me to Boston

**Whoo! Sorry for the short chapter before, but hopefully this makes up for it. As always I really appreciate the reviews, and I'm always open to people's ideas on how the story might proceed. Enjoy this long chapter, guys. Loves!**

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After spending time bickering over Karkat's little victory, they left Mia Roma's, talking and catching up with each other as Sollux walked his soon-to-be boss back to his suite, discussing old times. After the college debauchery, Karkat had all but deleted his Trollian account, but somehow Sollux wound up convincing him to get it again, and to go back to his old trolltag of carcinoGeneticist. He still had no idea why he called himself that so many years ago, but it stuck.

The next week proceeded rather smoothly. They spent almost every day together, hanging out at his suite, or talking online. After a couple of days just hanging out, Sollux had to take care of something for the team, a code he needed to go over and fix. He insisted that it wasn't his, but that could have easily been a lie. Easily. At any rate, they were still chatting online the whole day, while Karkat went over some files and got to work at some last-minutes work situations, settling his place at both companies. It was around five until he had any other contact, a phone call.

Why didn't he ever check the caller ID before answering his phone? It was **always** a good habit.

"Vantas speaking."

"Kaaar, w-we should talk about, you know-w, a few-w days ago." Karkat let out a sigh. He could just as easily hang up on Ampora, couldn't he? Shit, then he would find it in him to come and visit. It was a personal pledge to get a new phone number when he moved. It was going to happen."

"Ampora, I have more important matters to attend to, I can't listen to you gossip over your photography collection and underrated music choices." A hipster joke was exactly what the situation called for. Just to be even more of a rude asshole, Karkat grabbed a bag of chips, munching on them before either responded, sitting on his bed once again.

"Oh fuck you Kar!"

"Very romantic Ampora." He stuttered, growling. "What do you want this time, Eridan, I'm getting business done for my move."

"An that's exactly w-why I'm callin'! I w-want to know-w w-where you'll be _livvin _after this w-week." Still at it. He'd be at this for quite some time, Karkat already had to contact all of their friends in order to get some sort of assurance that no one would tell Eridan where he lived afterward. "Kar, please!"

"No. " It was such a simple answer, and the silence he won from it was a _nice_ prize. But, of course, after a while the silence turned to sniffles, then to full on sobs. God, he was crying. What was it about him that was so pitiful? Why was he the epitome of desperation and overpriced hair gel? "Stop fucking crying, you know as well as I do why I'm not telling you!"

"No I don't!" He sobbed, it was almost a screeching sob, too. "W-why Kar? I still _lovve_ you!" Finally he says it. This comes up so often when interacting with Eridan, but it was so rare that he actually admits to his love for him. It was a major flaw in their relationship. They started dating as two college-bound interns, when he was especially flirty and, for the most part, just wanted a good fuck. But they both got attached, hooked on each other. Eridan was still trying to get over his half-sister refusing to speak to him; he needed that care and confidence. And he found it for the most part, along with his feelings for his boyfriend.

He just didn't realize it until their relationship was pretty much over. Of course he would cling to Karkat now instead of finding someone new. Pathetic asshole.

"Eridan, I loved you too, okay? That was two years ago, and I'm not going back to that. I still have trollian, but don't you dare bug me every day with this shit." He wanted to keep yelling at him, to rant to him some more, but he just couldn't. He couldn't. That kind of emotional control wasn't him right then. Not at all. "I don't love you anymore!" he hissed, hanging up finally. In fact, he threw the damn phone against the wall, not even noticing his emotions picking up as well. Yeah, that expensive smart phone was busted. Collapsing onto the mattress, he let silence calm him, tears threatened to fall, and he wasn't having any of that shit. He just wasn't.

'you 2tiill there kk?'

Yeah, he was still there. Still on the bed crying -but not really crying, that is definitely too much of a girly thing- and glaring at the yellow text on his laptop screen. Yeah, he was still there.

'YES. PHONE CALL.'

'mu2t have been a pretty iimportant phone call then.'

He didn't answer for a long time, he had to calm down, but he eventually explained himself for the most part. How Eridan called to be pathetic, and made him feel like shit for pushing him away. It seemed like his mood was rubbing off on the other, Sollux wouldn't stop reassuring him and everything, but with self-depreciating bullshit about how he should have done something to help, to get the ex off of his back. Karkat just shook it off though. He said his goodbyes and turned off the computer for some much-needed emotion-settling sleep.

The last few days of the week was pretty uneventful, Sollux set up a meeting to enjoy a calming dinner with John on the move in day. They would drop off the rest of Karkat's stuff, the two boxes he had partially packed, and meet John at a nice restaurant for a celebration. It was a while since he actually saw John last, it was back when his girlfriend was coming to terms with her sexuality, and when John needed some kind of comfort, even from his asshole of a friend.

They could have been a great couple, actually. But John wasn't a homosexual. So fuck, yeah that wasn't happening. No, they spent the weekend watching horrible movies and episodes of the Fresh Prince of Bel-air. John and Rose both broke up on agreeable terms at least. That was a year or so ago. Apparently now she was dating another old friend of theirs, Kanaya. Not like Karkat _really_ cared too much about them now.

And finally moving day arrived. Sollux hung out at the suite most of the day, something about timing, and avoiding some kind of difficult situation, he never specified. As always, Karkat didn't care too much. They folded up things and re-packed the rest of Karkat's shit before heading out around 4 PM. The cab ride was expected to take about two hours long to get to the next city, so they had a lot of time to sit around in the car. It was quiet, pleasant for the most part.

"So glad I'm finally out of this shitty city." Karkat muttered, relaxing into the car seat. Sollux nodded, that long-ass arm find it's way around his shoulder. As comforting as it was to have the buzzing bipolar freak around, the constant flirting didn't just end: Implied flirting online, hanging out together and watching movies online together, and of course eating together pretty much every day. It kind of bugged him really. No, they weren't dating, Karkat wouldn't allow it. It will not be a thing.

But for now it wasn't so bad, he could deal with this, especially from his best friend. Yeah, they kind of went back to that whole thing. Turns out work associates agree on better terms. Wasn't gonna stop him from being an ass when it came time to get started at Dersite. "Yeah, gonna miss it at all?" He asked, leaning over towards the other.

"Nope. Not at all." He shrugged. "Hey, you didn't tell any of the team about me, did you?" He asked, arms crossed. "I want to surprise them when I get there."

"Nah, I don't even talk to those guys regularly." He answered, shrugging. "Though, we'll have to get you a new phone when we get there. Thince you broke yours." He snickered again, pulling his arm away and leaning against the window. "Didn't think you had such a strong throwing arm."

"Careful, I tend to throw shit if you piss me off in meetings." He cracked up, wanting to say something, probably some snarky comment about how he expected that kind of thing. Karkat really didn't bother to pay attention though. One of the perks of being the best friend of Karkat Vantas was ignorance on some of said friend's lack of intelligence, and shortcomings. Sometimes. Sollux was being pretty damn tolerable lately, which was kind of weird. It was like he was taking it easy on Karkat since a few days ago, after the whole Eridan fiasco. He never really asked about that, actually. "So…"

"Tho… what?"

"About the asshole-ex, about how long did you date him again?" It was just something he asked based on pure curiosity, but something about how Sollux responded, with one of his eyebrows raised up, (How does he do that, anyway?) made it seem like he was more suspicious.

"A few months." He said, shrugging. "Met in a bar, took him home, it was pretty much downhill after that. Things ended pretty badly." He shrugged, seemed reasonable. "Tho, was that whole thing true, about you two dating for two years?" Karkat looked away, out of the car window as he fell silent. That was confirmation enough. Sollux rubbed the back of his neck before letting out a sigh. "I thee."

"Things ended pretty badly for us, too. Well, everything resulting from that puss-spewing mutant called our relationship was pretty bad." Sollux shook his head, not wanting to go into it too far. "So, what about Feferi? I never really thought you were into guys after how close you two were."

"Mm, I figured out I was bi after her. Trutht me; you don't want to hear about that one." It was quiet again until Karkat asked the driver to turn up the heat. He hated the cold. The conversation did eventually pick up, some random conversation about the new city they were moving to. By the time they arrived, the mood was back to normal, joking around, and still pretty calm, nothing too major.

John was waiting for them at the suite, happily bouncing around happily. He really didn't grow up since the last time they met, still slightly taller than Karkat, and in casual blue-jeans and his typical dark-green jacket. So yeah, normal John. Spotting the two, he practically bounced to the others, pulling Karkat into as much of a hug he could manage with the boy grabbing his things from the trunk. Right, John was the huggy type.

"Karkat! It's been so long since he saw each other, I am soo glad we can meet up before switching our positions at Derse and Prospit, you have no idea!" He was known for having a lot of energy, by the time Karkat had his stuff out of the taxi, he had already hugged Sollux, and even payed for the...

"John, you did not just pay for me, did you?" Karkat growled, glaring at the other while holding his shit. Sollux grabbed the rest of it, directing them towards Karkat's new building.

"Yep!" He smiled, showing those annoying buck teeth with vigor. Karkat couldn't argue with pure energy incarnate, so he just dropped it, shaking his head. They helped Karkat to his new suite, which wasn't too bad, before dropping his shit off and heading to dinner. John reserved a table at a one of the best (family) restaurants in town.

As for Boston, it was a fairly impressive city. Not overly busy or dirty. Kind of loud, but from his tenth floor suite, it wasn't going to bother him any. Karkat mostly just skipped over details in their conversation as they were heading there. If it wasn't dark out, they would stroll by the sea-side. Karkat would probably go on his own, or drag Sollux with him to the beach or something. John had a week in Boston before moving into his old city, and into Prospitian Tech as their new manager.

Yeah, have fun with that one John. Those guys are insufferable pricks.

Dinner was nice, they all got caught up and spent the whole dinner asking John about this 'new girlfriend' he had. Of course he wouldn't say anything past her name, Vriska. Sollux met her once, apparently, but it wasn't like he cared, he in his own little world, too, drinking wine and adding small talk to the conversation. Maybe he just gained a taste for wine and wanted to enjoy it? Or was it that he was intimidated being surrounded by two of his bosses? Hm.

After dinner, John bid farewell to them to get back to his suite in time to get some sleep, only after hugging the shit out of the other two first and bounding off in a blaze of sugar and happiness. Disgusting.

"I think he drank too much wine." Sollux noted, chuckling quietly. They shared a collective shrug before heading back to Karkat's suite. It was already almost nine, did they really spend three hours at dinner?

"So, where do you live in this city? I'll walk you back." Karkat offered, arms crossed, "After all, you indulged in the wine a little too much, too."

He scoffed a little before rolling his eyes. "KK, John thaid where I lived when we got here. It'th the building right across from yours." Karkat tried raising an eyebrow in confusion, of course failing, but it got the same effect on the other. "Theriously KK, were you that out of it?"

"Possibly. Just getting used to Boston." He answered, arms crossed. "Kind of nice, I guess. And shut up, I wasn't the one guzzling down the drinks there." He shook his head. Sollux went back to being silent on their way back. It was kind of awkward actually, quiet and dark, like Dersite's home base. Kind of a good counter to Prospitian Tech, that town was fucking loud, and obnoxiously busy.

He didn't even notice Sollux holding his hand until they got to his building. How long had they been holding hands? Shit! As they got to the elevator, the cancer backed off, arms crossed. It was quiet, still kind of awkward at the same time. Everything was awkward all of a sudden. Sollux's suite was on the fourth floor, room 4-2. A little smaller than a two-room apartment, the whole room decorated in black and white, with the only exception being his furniture. Deep red couches, purposefully colored bright mini-rugs, even color coordinated curtains. It was so unorthodox Karkat couldn't even begin to pick apart this shit. No, he spent the first few minutes in his apartment openly gaping at the decorations. Taaacky.

Aside from the couch and large entertainment system, he had a few of those cube side tables with the lights in it, and a few yellow-cased mainframes in the corners, leading down the hall to his computer room. Sollux mentioned having a cat at home, but it wasn't around right now. Sollux had made his way to the couch, tossing his shoes off somewhere and relaxing with his cellphone. He noticed the other not following him to look at the mess called his tome of hues. Yes, this was what the suite would be called from now on.

"KK, you're letting all the warm air out." He mentioned, pointing to the open door, obviously painted a white and black checkerboard pattern. Naturally. Shaking his head, Karkat closed the door finally and walked over to the blue chair, falling down onto it without a care in the world, eyes fixated on Sollux. "What?"

"I have never seen such a ridiculous color scheme in my entire fucking life." He snickered at that, sitting back and giving the crab an 'oh really' glance. "Seriously, I've known about your little color fetish for years, but fuck, seriously Captor?" They both sat back, Crossing their arms as things fell silent again.

Karkat stayed over for another hour, just sitting there and watching TV with Sollux. He owned every game system, as it seemed, but they wasted time just staring openly at dancing colors, watching the Big Bang Theory. (Shut up it's a good fucking show.) He was about to get up and excuse himself out after that credits rolled on the second episode, only for Sollux to stop him, grabbing his arm.

"KK, before you go, could you answer thomething for me?" He glanced up to the other. There was that nervous glance again. Karkat couldn't help but stare openly at the brown and blue irises meeting his glance. He noticed the heterochromatic eyes a while ago, he just never paid attention to it, or cared.

"Yes, your lisp is still annoying Sollux."

"Hey, I'm trying to be seriouth here Karkat." He blinked, okay, Sollux broke from his nickname. Rolling his eyes, he pulled his arms back, staring down at his nerdy best friend. Please dear god don't let it be what he thought it wa-

"Are you still set on that 'no dating in the workplace' thing?" Fuck. He tried to avoid this conversation all week. After that rocky first day, the oh-so casual seductive slipping, and the return flirting. With them becoming friends again, he seriously thought that they would be good, you know, being '_just friends'_. He was lying to himself, obviously. Letting out a sigh, Karkat nodded. He couldn't look up to those eyes wide as plates, staring up at him after such a clear rejection. "But, KK…!"

"Cut it out Sollux, nothing good results from this kind of thing, alright?"

"And how the _fuck_ are you thupposed to know? We could be amazing together!" He didn't shout back, or anything, just an empty questioning that wasn't going to be resulting in anything. "Karkat, I didn't jutht start flirting with you randomly, alright? I really want thith to work!" His tone raised up again, Sollux noticed a wince from the other immediately and silence flooded the room. Everything seemed to stop: time, the commercials on TV, even their breathing. Sollux didn't understand it at first.

And then he realized exactly why. Karkat grabbed the back of his head, pulling them together. The softest, hottest lips he had ever felt were covering his chapped ones before he could even think or respond. It was forceful, and vicious, and the best damn kiss the Gemini had ever experienced. Wiry arms wound around tiny hips, and nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

Lips entangled, melding together in their heat. Those smaller hands running through dark brown hair, to cup his cheek as they pulled apart for all of two seconds. Their lips collapsing together, over and over again in short kisses, hot and sudden and pulsing with external tones of hesitation and passion he couldn't mistake above arousing breaths and-

And just as sudden as it began, Karkat pushed back, pulling himself apart from that grip Sollux had on him. A firm hand pushed Sollux back to his gaudy couch and Karkat a good few feet away. He missed the heat not even a second later, panting for breath as he watched the crab's cherry-red face glare at his, red into brown and blue. Minutes passed and it was quiet until finally his boss spoke up, loud and clear, and firm. Mostly.

"That's the kind of thing that **isn't** for work partners. Sollux-" His voice wavered a bit speaking his name. "It just **doesn't **work out Captor. Only idiots and children who obviously don't get it would disagree. Just… no." And with that, he just left, wiping away the kiss and leaving the suite, and more importantly, leaving Sollux.

Did he even have a chance?


	5. Homecoming

**Act two: Finally on to the suits! Oh my god that kiss scene was the hardest thing to write in the entire last chapter… Urgh… Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you've just seriously fucked up. That much should have already been obvious, but now finally in your own dark, first floor dorm room you can finally say that, yes, you have really fucked up. He wouldn't stop begging you for this chance, he said that he needed this. And you gave in way too quickly.

You've screwed yourself out of ever getting to work for this company ever again, hell, probably for any video game development company ever again. The way you marched right into your bosses office, yelled at him for now reason, and quit while giving blatantly obviously hints as to just what kind of person he should hire. (AKA, your boyfriend.) And then you marched right the fuck out middle fingers ablaze.

Maybe you should consider going to some kind of anger therapy thing after you finish screaming out your lungs while you wait for your hopefully successful boyfriend marches over with his pantaloons in a knot because of some stupid reason he can probably think of.

And you would have done just that, but your apartment has thin walls and you got home late. Maybe you should call over that previous friend you had and drown your idiocy in his drug-abused murmurs of miracles and shit. Maybe you should consider calling your ex-best friend and listen to him bang that girlfriend of his all night; just like what some creepy stranger is doing right now next door. Stupid thin walls.

Fuck, you've never felt this pathetic and useless in your life. Maybe for once your boyfriend will come home and just be appreciative for once, and hug and cuddle with you while trying to help you find you a new job so you don't lose this shitty apartment and be forced to live on the streets. Or worse: with him. Maybe he'll hold you and make you feel special, and tell you how much he loves you, and be adorable and romantic like you really want right now. Like how you need him right now.

No, of course that isn't going to happen. It's late, and he goes straight home after work, no questions asked. He would cuddle you if he were here, but since he isn't the most he could do is send you some flirty text full of text-written winks and insights to the inner-most mind of his over-creative imagination. And he definitely wouldn't hold you and tell you he loves you, and all that other shit. At least, he hasn't yet. And you've been dating for a year now. The most you've ever gotten him to say was a drunken slur. It's only three little words anyway. You know he cares, and he's appreciative, but…

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and it's quite possible to say now that you are pretty much screwed.

* * *

It's been a long fucking time since he's had this bad a case of insomnia. Three days straight of pure work; unpacking shit, and getting adjusted to Boston, procrastination. Now he's lying in his bed, one of the only things he's been able to fully unpack and set up aside from the furniture and kitchen supplies. The past few days of no sleep left him sluggish all day for the most part. Work started up in four days, and he really needed the rest to have the energy to set up the rest of the suite. Sleeping pills are supposed to work wonders at this point, and luckily there were just enough in storage. He used to be hooked on these things, actually. A good night's rest was that important to him after all. No, he wasn't reverting back to that.

The pills were a necessary evil today, and he took one extra for an extra assurance. Why weren't they working yet? Why can't they just work now, and get him off of his mind for one damn night? Damnit.

He put his foot down three days ago, told him no, explained why and everything. Just… why did he kiss him again? What point was that even supposed to make anyway? He spent the rest of the time awake trying to figure that out. He still failed horribly doing it. Karkat got just enough sleep to accurately work through the next day, unpacking his things finally, having lunch with John, and finishing by the time three o'clock struck. God he was exhausted after that. And did he actually get some decent sleep that night? No, not really. He slept, but every time he could remember it, _he_ was stuck in his mind still, reflected in his dreams. And it woke him up. Every time.

Why did he kiss Sollux…? Why?

Speaking of the lisping jackwagon, he hasn't contacted him all four days since the kiss. He probably wouldn't want to talk to him anyway… Oh well.

_Wait, no. Nononono. Stop it, you're the one pushing him away. So stop it. You're no better than a love-sick teenager in some lame-ass anime. And no, you aren't love-sick for him. That would be stupid. _

With the suite fully set up finally and mostly decorated, the cancer spent some time looking over code, going over things for his first day of work. Namely, looking over the profiles of his newest team, their credentials. He already knew that he'd be in charge of Sollux, and he already had a good strategy to solve that shit, but it was who he didn't know that made him curious. So since sleep wasn't likely for the rest of the day, this would have to do. Sitting in his white and red egg-chair, (yes, he had one of these, shut up they're cool) he went to work. Again.

Most of the furniture and heavy things were already set up beforehand by the moving team, so his main priority was decorating and organizing his shit. His entire suite was settled in with a similar grey and deep red color scheme, with the addition of white as a base color. The kitchen was fairly bigger than his last place, on the other side of the double door entrance. Honestly, that annoyed him, having two front doors. Seriously, he was only going to use one of them.

His bedroom/study was the second biggest room in his new home, with the old red plaid comforter set unceremoniously not made, grey walls darkening the room, and blinds covering the huge windows just on the other side of his bed. He kept his old red oak desk, the official holder of his at-home work station, and a good hiding spot for his personal mainframes underneath. And of course he couldn't go anywhere without his egg-chair. It was his favorite piece of furniture he owned. Like a bean-bag for teenagers, but in an egg shape. Aaaanyway…

The biggest room of the suite was, of course, the living room. His couch and chairs still dominated the space, while his big-screen TV was set up against the curved side of the wall, as much as it could. While he preferred keeping DVDs, most of his movies were digital copies. Of course, his favorite films were separate in a cabinet nearby the TV. The cabinet also held his one gaming system, a sleek, barely used PS3. Because fuck Microsoft. Seriously, stick with making software…

Nearby his living room was a dining room table and a few chairs he didn't particularly like, but he dealt with it. The chairs were too bright of a red, they didn't really fit. Other than that and the modest-sized bathroom, it seemed more like a condo, really. It could have very well been one, actually. Partially company-funded housing was confusing.

It was a nice view from the apartment, Sollux's building was only eight floors, since it was wider, but over the top of the building Karkat could spy the entire town, and just barely see the port. He already spent a lot of time staring out at the view from his window and watching the sun set before closing the blinds, trying to sleep still. Karkat was not afraid of heights. In fact, looking down to the street was kind of fun.

He finally got a new phone, too. He settled with the newest model iPhone, just because he liked apple's products. He hadn't even opened the thing yet actually. It took more out of him just knowing that he'd have to re-enter in all of his phone numbers, and call people. Speaking of calling people, it has been a while since he called his family. Mother and father moved to Russia a little bit after Karkat got to college, but he keeps up with them as much as he can… Which usually equates to once a month, if he's lucky. Mother is… clingy… Almost as much as father.

It took him almost an hour to set up his iPhone, at least to get the phone service working before he made the call. Long distance is expensive, especially cross-country. He had to get a very specific plan, more money wasted on phone services. Oh well. And of course it was too late and the time zones were too far away. Mom was probably still asleep. Oh well, he'd leave a message anyway.

"Здравствуйте, это резиденция Алена и Виктор, мы не доступны в настоящее время, пожалуйста, оставьте сообщение в тон." _(Hello, this is the residence of Alyona and Viktor, we aren't available currently, please leave a message at the tone.) _His mother's voice was always a welcome sound, even in a message. She had a heavy Russian accent, but it's her second language, unlike Karkat's and his father's. She had a tendency to use a more impersonal dialect when on the phone, too. It was just a bad habit of hers. Oh well. Clearing his throat, Karkat let out a sigh and recorded his message, also in well-practiced Russian.

"Мать? Да, это было давно я назвал, я знаю. В любом случае, просто позвонив с моим новым телефоном, компания переехала в Бостон, мне так у меня новый номер. Как Курске? Папа сказал, что два только переехал туда. В любом случае, вы, вероятно, спали. Привет Нанна для меня. Прощание в настоящее время." _(Mother? Yes, it's been a long time since I have called, I know. Anyway, just calling from my new phone, the company moved me to Boston so I have a new number. How is Kursk? Dad said you two just moved there. Anyway, you're probably asleep. Say hello to Nanna for me. Farewell for now.) _Placing the phone back on his desk, Karkat breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed into his egg chair, satisfied for now. He pulled his legs into the seat and spun around for a few hours as he played with the settings and things on his phone for a few more hours, effectively wasting the rest of the day.

Karkat didn't talk to Sollux all that time, and before he knew it, it was already the first day of work. The most he interacted with the other was a message with his new phone number, something he spent a LONG time considering. He was thiiis close from not sending it, but in the end, just went fuck it and that was that. Sollux sent him a few texts since then, but he hadn't returned any of them. He still needed some time, time to push away the thoughts of that kiss. It wasn't working though.

It probably won't. If they weren't working together, then yeah, he wouldn't hesitate one bit. Hell, he might even consider it if they were on separate teams and councils, but it wasn't that simple. He was, quite literally out of choices, they couldn't date. There was no alternative, and no choice. So why was it so hard to accept?

John was due in an hour to pick him up for work. First, an early morning meeting, and introduction to all of his bosses, and his scheduled 'fuck you guys get to work' plans. Meetings, meetings, meetings. All in the day's work of a leader, it annoyed the fuck out of him. Karkat was trying to push away his aggravation for now, pulling out his dark-gray suit and red tie. Finally time to get back to work, and to see _exactly_ what he would be dealing with from now on. Sounds like… fun.

* * *

**Whoo for translators on google for the Russian. Whoot.**

**Karkat does have a slight Russian accent, but he hides it well, as long as he's speaking English mostly. Otherwise, it can get pretty heavy depending on how much he says in Russian. Fun fact: his accent is REALLY heavy when he's drunk. It's only happened a few times in his life though, he's not one for booze, unlike the stereotypes.**

**Egg chairs are cool. As always, I enjoy reading your guys' reviews, so thank you everyone. Loves! Chu!  
**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	6. Stuffy cotton and candyred glares

**Whoo! First day of work, finally KK, so lazy!**

**Also, some clarification from the last chapter, just based on a review or two. The whole Microsoft thing was just a joke. He has a PS3 because I don't like the Xbox, he directed that "They should stick with software" joke at Microsoft, not Sony. Anyway, who cares. Onto the next chapter, enjoy!**

* * *

So, yeah. Meetings suck. If there's one thing Karkat wouldn't like to spend his morning doing is standing around in a stuffy room with a bunch of old suit-cladded douchebags talking about how they 'appreciate the choice to undertake this specific team,' and other bullshit about going over his resume again. All a bunch of ass-kissing fucktards hiding underhanded insults under those shit-eating grins of theirs. He swore one of those guys was checking him out, too. Old perverts. Disgusting.

It's was john's last meeting at Derse, and he was so happy to get it over with. His suite was clean and free of wrinkles before he walked out of that room. Now he could almost see the sweat-stains emanating from his pits as the windbag dressed from head to toe in blue cloth sat, relaxing in one of the chairs nearby, effectively wrinkling the fabric. Wouldn't have guessed he was the type to cave under stress quite like that. Maybe he needed a breath of fresh air or something.

Stretching, Karkat smoothed out his own suit and shrugged off the sense of peering eyes on him. He stuck with a very formal dark-gray modern-styled three button suit. His red tie accented the outfit just enough to not be influential. Fashion wasn't exactly his thing, he had someone else pick this stupid thing out. Honestly, he hated being prim and proper like this, the feeling of even having his undershirt tucked in just bugged the shit out of him. He made a mental note to correct this little problem later.

Although he resisted it, John made sure he looked absolutely perfect for his first meeting. Brushing his hair out very specifically, washing his face, even shaving. Karkat barely got facial hair, and yet John was ranting at him to shave this morning. What a nuisance, seriously. And now Egbert was the one who looked like an unmade bed.

"Well, what's next after this John. Going home to rinse the bodily fluids from your Damier Check wetsuit?" Yes, he was going to taunt him, he was going to enjoy it. "Seriously Egbert are you gonna fucking pass out now?" And naturally John just rolled his eyes, laughing lightly as he just shook off the insult. Why did he always fucking do that?

"No, shit Karkat, you're not stressed out or anything? Those guys were staring into your soul, like Vigo the damn Carpathian!" An eyebrow twitch. Karkat knew exactly why he mentioned that. To some it might have been taken as an intelligent reference to history. Nope. Stupid fucking Ghostbusters Two.

"John, your _stupid_ movie references make you sound more like an idiot than you already are."

"Shut it, that movie's pure gold! Almost as much as the first one." He shrugged, moving the now messy hair out of his face. "It's almost lunch time. You wanna get something to eat before you meet the team?" He asked, checking his phone for the time like he really needed. "My girlfriend's probably on break too. She works at the zoo, can you believe it? Though she really doesn't like it." John's whole mood picked up at the mention of his little girlfriend. They must have made one hell of a couple or something.

Having to sit through lunch with the two of them being cute and sappy and shit? He really would prefer not to spend his time doing that. John didn't even ask him though, as soon as he was done catching his breath, he grabbed Karkat by his wrist and dragged him away to call a taxi. Yeah, what a friend.

John was on the phone all throughout the taxi ride, chatting it up with his little girlfriend while Karkat grumbled and dealt with it. At least John chose a nice place to eat, some seafood restaurant nearby the highly esteemed Franklin Park Zoo. It was a nice location actually, Karkat still didn't take the time to go sightseeing, as much as John kept suggesting to him.

Vriska was waiting at the entrance to the little restaurant. She was fairly tall and had way too long blonde hair. Peering at them through a single blue eye (her right eye was covered by an eyepatch. She lost it in an accident according to John.) "Hi Vriska! We're here!" John called, running over to her happily. Karkat followed after, not exactly wanting to be there anymore. She looked like a huge bitch, with her dark-green jacket and oh-so-revealing black tank top. She wore black booty-shorts, as if her thighs and long legs really needed to be shown off, just as much as her huge chest. (Karkat really didn't give a fuck about that.) Just to completely the look, she wore bright-red high-tops that looked a little more like rocket shoes with the weird padding shit on them. Weird.

"Yeah, well you're late." She called, her snarky voice pulled through unenthusiastically. With as much venom showing through her tone, she forgave him pretty easily. Instead she stared down Karkat, only to have bright red eyes staring her down equally. "And this shorty is…" Shorty? Seriously?

"This is Karkat! He's the one taking over for me at Derse. Remember, I told you about him when we visited Rose!" He held her hand, sweetly and the highly-esteemed 'shorty' growled up at them. Okay, they _were_ kind of a cute couple. "Hey Karkat, this is my girlfriend, Vriska Serket." She shrugged in response, as Karkat just rolled his eyes. Lovely conversation so far. "Hungry Vris?"

"Yeah. I have to leave early though. Mom called again. She just hates when I ignoooooooore her in the morning." The way she drew out that hate was oh-so-intentional. Kind of annoying.

"Oh, well lets hurry up then. C'mon Karkat!" He hyperly grabbed his friend's sleeve, pulling him and Vriska into the restaurant without a care in the world. This was going to be awkward, as Karkat soon realized. The little restaurant was set up more like a fast-food place, with all of the servers behind a counter and tables set out and barely managed. Even so the lighting and darker color scheme distinguished it to be a little more professional. John and Karkat were still overdressed for the place though, enough to be widely noticeable. Great.

John pulled them over to a table near the back, taking off his suit blazer before pulling out a chair for Vriska, who oh-so-casually sat down like she already owned the place. Karkat rolled his eyes in response and took his own seat across from her. "So the food good here?" he asked, slouching into the chair.

"Oh yeah, trust me. What do you two want? I'll go place the order!"

"I don't care." They both answered, at nearly the same time. Vriska shot him an annoyed glance while John stared at them confusedly. John just chuckled and walked off though, muttering something under his breath. The crabby Cancer rolled his eyes and stared down his girlfriend, who in turn was doing the exact same thing. It was fucking weird. "What?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Vantas. Just how do you know John aside from work?" She asked, leaning back confidently in her chair. He shrugged it off though.

"Old friend." There was something snarky about her that Karkat just didn't like already. Not wanting to make trouble for John though, Karkat just dealt with it and was fairly stable throughout the little lunch date. From what John said (and he said a LOT) Vriska had a pretty tough life so far, so he's been helping her as much as he could. Honestly she seemed like the type to just be there to mooch off of him and his high-paying career, but… Well they could plainly love each other, even Karkat could see it.

It sucked, a certain buzzing ran through his head just watching them chat, holding hands and feeding each other like the cute couple they were. Why…

* * *

Their lunch lasted for good hour or so, only cut short by Vriska having to leave to go back to work. John, of course, had been talking everyone's ears off the entire time, little things about their relationship, and dates they've been on, and some things work-related, too. John spilled sauce on his suit jacket halfway through the meal, so one part of his three-piece suit was completely filthy. Karkat took up quite a large chunk of their time afterwards rambling about how he should be careful about that shit.

By the time They made it to the taxi John was exhausted, while Karkat had to go back and introduce himself to his team. He'd have to see Sollux again. Going to drop the Cancer back off at HQ, He mentioned that little issue to Egbert very briefly. About how there was some weird tension between the two of them. John isn't one to ask for romantic advice, but honestly Karkat wasn't asking. Why would he, an expert at human romantic relations, ask Lord Asshole for advice? He didn't even want that kind of advice!

"Well, when I told him about your transfer, he got really antsy all of a sudden, insisted that he be the one to help your move as soon as he heard that you were transferring here. I dunno about romantic stuff, but I can tell that he wanted to see you again."

Why did that, out of all of the pointless babble John spouted today, get through to him the most. Sollux was so excited to see him again after college, and he'd been ignoring him all week. Fuck, what an asshole he was being. Not even the obvious sexual tension should really be getting in the way of that, he was his best friend after all. Shit.

Giving out a sigh, he rolled his eyes as John gave him one of those infamous flying hugs and jumped back in the taxi to go back home. Karkat shook his head as he checked his phone for a few notes, listing his team's block. Third floor, second major computer hall as they called it. Just basically a wide section of the building filled with cubicles to fit the twenty or so workers under him, his office, and a single meeting room. Karkat had his own office in this case, but according to the photos that were sent to him earlier in the week, his office was tiny with a large window and computer monitors that showed all of the working computers in tiny cells, to manage their work time and still have some privacy to work on the big picture.

Karkat would lead his team, give advice whenever needed, and organize with the testing division in another sector of the company. All the while he was supposed to make sure everyone stayed on task, and healthy as they worked. It wasn't too difficult of a job if the right person was hired. Luckily, Karkat was that right person.

Stepping into the Computer hall, he wasn't exactly expecting this… Loud as FUCK music playing, from somewhere nearby, messy cubicle from what he could see, and some douchebag in his office, sitting in HIS chair, with his dirty shoes put up on his new desk! What the fuck. Seriously. What. The. Fuck? He knew where to start first. Approaching his new office, Karkat glared down at the douchebag in his chair as seemed to enjoy his fucking time, air drumming along to the music playing, only noticing Karkat after the song ended. Yeah, this guy better be a good programmer or he was so fired.

As far as he could recognize from his shirt-bound name tag, he was in the presence of Amarant Goldbawnt. (the Great, as some sticker on the tag specified.) Amarant was fucking tall, a common thing Karkat was noticing, and his work attire was horrendous. A shaggy sweatshirt underneath a dirty t-shit with the word Shit spelled out in bright blue. Shit, indeed, Amarant Goldbawnt the Great.

"Hey kid, something you lookin' fer? Intern or something?" He called finally. He must have spot the unbridled rage behind Karkat's eyes, he instantly sat up in the chair, gazing up at him. Intern. Intern. HA!

"Funny. Why don't you do me a little favor, and sort your shit out, Mr. Goldbawnt the Great." He smirked at that one, what a cocky bastard.

"Hey, don' mind me kid, th'new boss isn't expected until later." He said chuckling. "Though, might wanna watch that tongue'a'yer's. Who knows, this guy might be some tight-lipped guy, y'know?" He shrugged, "So, y'know my name already. What's yer's? Y'don't even have you stupid name tag thing on?" He reached an arm out, to be friendly for at least that moment.

"Karkat Vantas."

There's a very distinct and elusive moment that can only be described as an 'Oh fuck' moment. Subjects of 'oh fuck' moments seem very calm at first to said stimulus. Amarant in this case had no such tact, but the first reactions were always steady to appear. John had already told them the name of their new boss, but by Karkat's command was restricted from telling people about him, about what he looked like, acted like, pretty much anything aside from his name.

Some of the guys were smart enough to look up the name since it was told, told to them yesterday in fact, while some others, like this one apparently, either forgot to or didn't really care. But once Karkat spoke his name, he slipped into a minute 'oh crap' stage, widened eyes, realization running through his unshaved mug, and a brief flash of panic. Knowing what he's done already, he stumbled into an 'oh shit stage,' instantly getting his dirty shoes off the desk, sitting straight up, and the intended lip bite. Now it was finally time for him to slip into the obligatory 'oh fuck' stage, the final stage before the relapse and overstressed calming period. AKA the 'oh fuck, oh fuck, oh shit, oh damn, oh damn, FUCK!' period.

Maybe he should have been a stress counselor instead of a lead programmer. Actually, fuck that.

"I, uh, Mr. Vantas, sir, uh!" Ah, the stuttering, a byproduct of the transition between the 'oh shit' and 'oh fuck,' moments. As much as his reaction entertained him, Karkat needed to get ready for his first meeting with the team.

"Get the fuck out of my chair. Meeting in ten minutes." He stood up, nodding and trying to smooth out some un-seen wrinkles on the seat. "Go." He ordered, with the snap of his fingers. Amarant dashed out of the room after that, allowing Karkat to watch him scurry out of the block to the bathrooms, running kind of in a goofy way. He was entertaining at least. Maybe Karkat should keep him around.

Pulling out his iPhone, Karkat sent a quick text to Sollux. 'SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF GOLDBAWNT THE GREAT. IT WAS FUCKING BRILLIANT, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT.' He waited only a few moments before he heard a familiar snicker he really hated, louder than before and almost buzzing in his ears. Giving a satisfied smirk, Karkat closed and locked his office door, pulled the blinds down, and sat down at his chair, still warm from Amarant's use.

Well, today was going better already.

* * *

**I had way too much fun writing the psychology of the 'oh fuck.' Moment. Ehehe!**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	7. In a room full of idiots

**Huzzah! Next chapter, all lined up for you guys! Enjoy, I love writing for this story, you have no idea how many plans I have for this story!**

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Your name is Sollux Captor, and you might have just heard the best news in your entire life. Okay, maybe there are better things, but damn you're excited! Your boss was just ranting to you again (rambling mostly, he does that a lot when you choose not to listen) and he mentioned a name you haven't heard in a long time. Karkat Vantas. Your old roommate from college. Your best friend pretty much.

The two of you met online years ago, back when your mental state was less-than excellent. You're your Bipolar disorder under control and stable for the moment, you can't help but be excited as you told John that you knew him. In fact, it was a nice surprise, because he was good friends with him, too. You had long since hacked into the employee files and discovered that, yes, he worked at Propsitian Technologies, the sister company to Dersite Tech. You wanted to try and contact him again, but he changed all of his phone numbers, got rid of trollian, and pretty much dropped out of your life.

You deserve it, mostly. All the shit you pulled on him, you deserve more than that actually. But college was a confusing time for you. Apparently it was for him as well. John, however, knew him personally. And seeing as he is your boss until the transfer, you figure that this is a good chance.

So you asked him to be the one to help you move. Basically asking for a week off of work, too, while you helped Karkat settle into Boston. You had to explain some things about your relationship with him, but yeah, he was pretty gung-ho about it. He's like that a lot, even with work. Somehow Amarant, the crazy guy he is, got John really confused as of late. Not one to brag here, but you are a pretty awesome guy, and Amarant always finds some way to flirt with his co-workers. He's like that all the time though. Flirty even to people he really hates. He sees a guy or girl he finds attractive or cute, then yeah. Flirt city.

And John's been his target for a while now. Sollux has to deal with him flirting, having to see it across his cubicle, and it's embarrassing most days. That one day you turned up at work in your PJ's however, took the target off of Egbert's back somehow. Goldbawnt the Great has been flirting with you non-stop, ignoring John. At least you can give him some credit for not just going after EVERYONE at the same time.

You also used that as an excuse to get out of work for a while. Amarant is a nice guy under all the flirtiness, but honestly he's a tool. Like that guy you met in your favorite bar last week, that one with the shades and shit. You hope Karkat still has those same colorful insults, and the bottom lip piercings. Those were pretty hot. Yes, your previous best friend is hot in your eyes, problem?

Hmm. Maybe he's single...

* * *

Letting out a hefty sigh, Karkat relaxed in his chair, pulling off the suit blazer. He really hated things like this at work, suits and shit. But if everyone's gonna dress like a slob to work, than he'd have some policies to put in place. He could hear some shuffling from outside the room, probably some of his new subordinates wanting to get a peek at their new boss. Nope.

Luckily, his door had an electric lock keeping people from just walking in. With his blinds down, this was a message to the others: 'Leave me alone.' Sitting up, he pulled up his white work shirt from the slacks with a sigh of relief. Finally able to relax a bit, Karkat turned to his terminals. He had access to a huge monitor, attached to the wall to show everyone's computer screens. The Cancer had just turned it on, and already he could see some things to bring up to the meeting. Someone checking their e-mail, someone on Tumblr, someone on Facebook looking at pictures. Starting up his own computer, Karkat waited for his screen to join theirs on the wall before typing in a few codes.

With his access, he could send messages to everyone's screens, freeze their screens, and even take over their computer completely. A tiny power trip rushed through him, making the neat and orderly hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He really felt like he had all of the control, and god he loved that. Opening the Maintence Control Program, he glanced up at the screens again as he sent a message to every computer in the hall.

'MEETING IN FIVE MINUTES. DON'T YOU DARE BE LATE.'

Yeah, so he was going to use his quirk, who cares? He was the leader, deal with it.

Okay, calm down Karkat, acting like a childish little imp wasn't going to get you anywhere. Sighing, the boss stretched out in his chair, locking up his computer, Karkat watched as grey text spread across each mini-screen on the wall monitor. He rolled up his sleeves and removed his tie, finding that it looked ridiculous on him then. He took all of those precious five minutes alone to relax, taking a deep breath as he prepared for the incoming speech.

"Okay, time to go." He mumbled. Walking over to the meeting room meant passing by cubicles of unlocked terminals, and surprisingly, Sollux, still in his chair hunched over with his ear buddies in. He obviously saw the message. It wasn't even an issue to him apparently, he was still furiously typing shit out, a program he was getting to work. Walking up next to him, Karkat took note of the dark circles under his eyes, 3-d glasses couldn't hide that _and_ the dirty t-shirt he wore. "Sollux." He called, not getting an answer.

Growling, Karkat didn't even try speaking again, if his music was just that loud, the only thing that would settle it is pulling the fucker out. Sollux reacted immediately to that, snarling and almost snapping at the other as he glanced up. Blue and brown met with bright red and Sollux froze in silence just taking in the anger staring back at him, eyes wide. He hadn't seen him since they kissed a week ago, this and the text before was some of the only contact they even had. "Uhh… hey KK."

"Meeting." Karkat ordered, arms crossed. "Come on, before I flip the fuck out." And he left him to scramble out of his seat, locking his terminal in the process, as he walked to the meeting hall.

The room was big enough for about fifteen people, chairs spread across the room quietly, some filled, and some just all over the place as workers stood around them almost nervously. Amarant was among those seated, staring up at his boss silently when he arrived. Karkat however, went right to the whiteboard, catching the attention of mostly everyone. As soon as he was sure the head count was right (including Sollux, who followed him inside like a little puppy) he spoke up.

"Alright. Now that we're all here, I'd like to remind you fuckers that we're a software company. Any and all of you who forget to lock your computers had better-" he stopped, quickly snapping his fingers at those heading to the door. "You will stay here until I'm done." He hissed. Yeah, they all stopped instantly. Good. "Like I was saying, right now I would go off on you morons about how you're endangering the company, blah blah bluh." He rolled his eyes for emphasis. "But it's the first day. So get your sorry worthless asses up and lock your damn terminals before I change my mind and ensure that your life is hell for as long as I run this division." Karkat finally dismissed them to go lock up and probably whine at him. Karkat nonchalantly sat down comfortably and rubbed his forehead, slightly annoyed already as he cursed expletives in Russian.

"Having issues already KK?" Sollux called, finding a seat nearby, in the only red and blue chair. Naturally. Karkat just shook his head though, waiting for everyone to return. It took ten minutes. Ten. Fucking. Minutes. What was John doing with this team and how were they actually even capable of getting their work done?

Making sure everyone sat down and were quiet, Karkat started his introduction speech. "Well, took you long enough, now didn't it. I may have said how I would spare you the details, but this will not be happening again. Get it through your thick skulls for next time." He stood up then, arms crossed. "As you have no doubt figured out, my name is Karkat Vantas, the newest lead programmer for all of you ingrates." He starting pacing a bit and rambling about himself, just giving his workers a small bit of knowledge about him while he could. Ice breaker stuff first, you know.

"I'm amazed by the supreme lenience John had with you all. It's amazing that you could produce a single update or patch together without failing." He was rambling for quite a while before getting things started, having everyone talk about themselves and say a few things about who they are to them. Karkat took it all in stride, trying to remember names as much as he could. All Sollux said was his name though. Karkat was _so_ expecting something along the lines of 'my name ith Tholluxth Captor and I like beeth. KK ith my beeeetht friend!' Or something stupid like that. He would almost be disappointed if the idea wasn't completely ridiculous in the first place.

All of the stupid shit finally over with, Karkat finally sat down again. "Well, now that we've got that down, I'd like to take a minute to summarize what I've seen so far." So far so good. Some of his subordinates seemed a little calmer. They really shouldn't. "You all are a bunch of **fucking pack rats**, and from what I've seen of your cubicles, there _needs_ to be an improvement. So, today and tomorrow there's no need for any more computer work, you're allowed computer freedoms as well, under the normal limitations. But _only_ after those things are cleaned up. We'll be having another meeting as soon as the last person's cubicle is up to my standards." He took a break to catch his breath, glancing around the room. "You lazy assholes were wasting all of your time anyway. Seriously, there's a deadline Egbert set for the end of the week, what the hell are you doing?" He swore he saw some of them flinch when he let the venom out. Not Sollux though, his poker face was up, like usual.

"There will be consequences if you can't get the cubicles clean when Egbert gets here for his last review." He warned, very sternly. "Speaking of Egbert, I've also noticed a major ignorance of company policy. Music played throughout the room is to be accepted with everyone, and definitely not as loud as it was then. And the only time Tumblr and other free-time websites are allowed is during breaks." He was scolding them basically, trying not to make himself too overly commanding. Yet. "Now then, I'd like to brin_k_ op a few _personal_ issues, but since we all have work to do, I'll forgo that little addition."

Karkat stood up, pacing about his spot a little to get a feel for how he was going to word things. "After the last deadline for the recent Solstice program you're all a part of I'll be imposing my own rules and guidelines towards work." He bit his tongue in punishment; his accent really was getting the best of him during this little speech. How annoying. Brin_k o_p? Seriously?

"I've noticed an amazing amount of late reports on the record. It doesn't matter how much you rate yourself as a programmer, sometimes things need to just be on time. Starting next week, I'll be imposing very particular rules to your coding segments. For example, things like the typically standard five error rule. It's so simple that it pretty much explains itself, and it's similar to the standards John imposed—_e-xcuse_ me, tried to impose." He took a break to breath before continuing. "If the results to that particular segment tests and results in five or more errors, you will be sending it in to the testers. No exceptions." He stared at the others as the chatter in the room increased. It was such a simple policy. "Any questions?"

The room fell silent as Karkat returned to his seat, sitting back and just waiting for the expected idiocy. Finally, someone spoke up. "So, as long as it's only five errors, we just send it in to testing?" Ah, one of the older members of the team. He looked overconfident and cocky. The fun type.

"Yes, our testers should be capable of correcting that many errors. Five errors in a single segment of code one person is assigned to? Yeah, I would think that it's a simple change." Karkat shrugged. "And the method has already been effective to reduce late reports and code." He effectively had to answer the same thing a few more times, until he just moved on to the next topic, which was basically him ranting about company policy and deadlines, as well as breaks and everything, until even he could tell that everyone was done listening to him ramble.

"Alright, enough of this. It's not that hard to understand and we're about done with this meeting. Before I excuse all of you, I want to briefly explain that my cubicle cleaning task is fairly simple. No garbage, clean off your computers, and make sure things are put away properly for the management staff to vacuum the place up. Any and all policy changes will be explained in detail and sent to your company e-mail. I recommend you keep an _eye _out for it." With a sigh, Karkat shook his head and waved them all off, excusing them from his lecture. "You can go now. Except you, Goldbawnt."

Karkat rested his head on his hands and watched as everyone left, the last one being Sollux. Amarant was freaking out, the onsets of the 'oh fuck' moment recovery period making an 'oh shit what now' relapse. A few minutes of silence had him practically shaking in his old shoes. "Y-yes Mr. Vantas?" He asked, finally. Karkat was currently staring him down, searching though his already scared brown eyes for that little aspect of fear.

But enough of that, there was plenty of time to do that later anyway. Karkat sat up, stretching out his back a little. "I don't ever want to see you **relaxing** in my office ever again like it's your personal screw-off zone. I'm picky about my things, so I'll disinfect my own desk after your disgustingly grime-covered shoes had their way with it. But instead, you're going to stay here and clean every one of these desks and chairs." Karkat stood up, shrugging. "Your computer will be locked until it's done. I don't know where the cleaning supplies are, so have fun looking. Get to work."

Karkat left him there to think and work on cleaning as punishment before walking by, and stopping to watch everyone start on their cleaning. Passing by Sollux's cubicle, he noticed that the busy bee almost instantly back to coding, a few paper cups and such in the trash. Wow, great work, lazy jackass. Karkat sneered at him a little before heading back to his office to clean up that shithole himself. Might as well try to set an example, right? What an excellent first day at work. His iPhone buzzed from inside his suit coat pocket. A text? Maybe it was Dirk or John or something…

'we need two talk KK.'

* * *

**The meeting was really gonna be this long boring discussion, so I kind of rushed through it since it's pretty standard. Oh well. How does one accentuate an accent in writing, anyway? Anyway, Karkat really can't control his accent after talking to too long like during a speech or something. Then again, that kind of thing is common, isn't it? Too bad he has to do it a lot in this line of work. Sollux's segment mentioned Karkat having piercings, yeah, he used to have them. And an earring on the cartilage of his right ear. Sollux has a tattoo of the Gemini symbol on his upped leg. He was drunk when it happened, hehehe.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	8. Business as usual

**Alright, sorry for taking so long to update! Before this chapter starts I want to answer a couple of questions from the reviews.**

**-No, I'm not Russian in any part. Ehehe… I chose for him to be Russian mostly because I like the accent and language, I guess? And it's also a pretty unique considering there are a lot of interpretations of Karkat, from being albino, or a red-head, and a lot of others. I'm not even gonna try writing in the accent anymore, it's a good opportunity for researching how to, but I'll use italics to accentuate things as needed.**

**-Sollux does have Bipolar Disorder in this story, but it's medicated, and he usually keeps up on that. Key-word is usually.**

**-I loves you guys sooo much! Thank you very, very much for the reviews/comments/whatever! You all deserve an internet cookie, here you go!**

**Okay, enough of that, onto the chapter!**

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That little talk was gonna have to wait quite a while. No way in hell Karkat was going to give him the satisfaction he so desired. He knew how these talks went, guilt trips to get closer. Fuck no, that wasn't going to happen, Karkat wasn't up to that. There's a reason why he won't date him…

'It's okay, you work with him too. Anyway, what's the difference?'

Shuddering, Karkat shook off his thoughts. That can't happen again. He wasn't going to let things get like that, ever.

The next day ended up being a _little_ awkward, Karkat pretended not to get his text, and while John had his final meeting, Karkat sat in with little interest. Egbert's leadership skills are atrocious, by the way. HORRIBLE. That meeting was enough proof, always going back and forth with his organization, having to deal with uncooperative workers. A few times Karkat had to step in just to get the meeting done with already. Yeah, it was a really aggravating experience… Not something he wanted to do again.

The few days, Karkat was introduced the some new interns, getting his own chore-monkey to boss around all day. Nah, inters weren't all that bad. As long as they're smart and don't fuck shit up, it was fine. The intern under his responsibility was some awkward little wheelchair kid named Tavros Nitram. Aparently John's girlfriend convinced him to recommend the kid. That's nice of Vriska. Born in Argentina, and raised in Virginia with his mother, Tavros seems competent enough.

His resume in particular appealed to Karkat. It's exactly why he chose him of all people. Clean slate, no drug history, spends most of the time in a wheelchair after a pretty bad accident as he says, but he can still walk. Barely. He's interested in game design, and he's held many jobs due to his excellent customer service skills. Even volunteers at an animal shelter in between work and online classes.

So in short, he's a hard worker, and so far hasn't annoyed him too much. Karkat could get used to him being on the staff, but he seems set on his career choice. Too bad. Besides that and the obvious speech impediment he has, he's an alright guy. A few days passed, and he seemed to be alright with the way work went about. In the morning he brought Karkat coffee without even being asked, organized some files he needed to sign, and was relatively quiet as his boss walked him around the location.

As they passed by Sollux's cubicle, Karkat couldn't help but notice that horrible stench. Sollux was sitting at his computer coding again, hunched over in his chair while still wearing those dirty clothes. God damnit this guy was difficult to handle sometimes. Karkat sent Tav off to explore the location some, and slipped into the cubicle to hover over him for a few minutes.

Six errors from his last evaluation. Karkat almost had to yell at him and force him to submit the recent portion. "Sollux. Status report." He ignored him, of course. Those stupid ear buddies. Karkat poked his back a few times, getting him to let out an annoyed grunt as he sat back. Oh god, his back popped as he did so. How long has he spent hunched up in front of the computer like that?

"What KK?" Sollux pulled out his headphones, some really calming song playing way too loud. He didn't even look at him, either.

"Status report. Error check, right now." He grunted, following orders. Three errors on this page of code. Great. "Send it."

"It'th not done yet." Sollux mumbled, tilting his head back to glare at his boss. Not in a good mood? Good. "Leave me be, bosth, I'm buthy getting this code finished." Oh fuck no.

"Fucking send it, Captor." He growled, staring down at him. God these work days weren't getting any easier. Especially when he had to face this douchebag. "That's an order."

"I don't follow your orderth KK. Thought you got the memo." He shrugged, going back to work. That bitch! Karkat growled again, pulling his head back to look at him. Pop! He needed to stretch out or something. It didn't hurt him though. If anything he gave a light groan. "Nngh. Are you a chiropractor or thomething, too? Fuck that felt nice."

"No, I'm your _boss_. Send that fucking report!" He hissed, letting his hair go.

"What's in it for me?"

"Your **job**." And he just scoffed at that! Okay, that's it. "Stand up." He ordered, arms crossed. God he stunk. As soon as he was up Karkat pushed him out of the way, entering a few keystrokes to lock his keyboard.

"KK what the fuck?" Sollux yelled, arms crossed. He was even pouting, oh god that's endearing. Straightening his back Karkat took a few seconds before turning back towards him.

"You want to know _what_ the fuck is? It's you, my previously able-bodied little miscreant of lisps and honey. First off, you smell like a rotten rat carcass in a sewage drain, your hair is completely messy and I seriously regret even thinking about touching it." He paused to use some of the hand sanitizer he had to buy for Sollux. Idiot. "And what did I say about the policy changes, Captor? Five errors or less and you send the page in for testing."

"Fuck the tethting, and fuck you for trying to break my good streak. Now if you don't mind, unlock my keyboard, you little asshole!" He was scowling, but from this angle, it looked more like a pout. And go it was endearing.

"Nope." Karkat crossed his arms. "Keyboard's not coming back on until tomorrow's shift, unfortunately." He had this really sly grin, watching Sollux fume and pretty much throw a tantrum. "Besides, your shift's over. Go sign out and meet me in my office." He let out another annoyed huff, before stomping off. Karkat glanced over to see a few people staring. "What?"

"First time I've seen Sollux just give up like that. Last time that happened it looked like he was gonna hit Director Egbert." The worker had this incredulous look on his face, staring down at his boss. But he was a formal one, now wasn't he?

"Well, obviously, that isn't happening with me. First rule in this position: if you back down, your workers push you off a cliff. Now back to work, you promised an hour of overtime, didn't you?" He didn't even know that guy's name, Karkat knew them by their assigned computer numbers. It was easier that way, being impersonal like that. He sneered a little, walking past some douche staring down his intern.

"I, uh, oh god, I'm s-sorry sir." Tavros was on his knees out of his wheelchair, picking up the files the other guy in screen 14 must have dropped. 14 had his arms crossed, giving him this intimidating stare, just watching him. Yeah, fuck no.

"Nitram. Let him pick up his own damn files and sit back down." Tav squeaked, staring back up at those angry eyes. He followed the order though, sitting back in his wheelchair quickly. 14 was less than thrilled at this interruption, though.

"Sir, he bumped into me!" Wow what a whiner. As Nitram back up, muttering apologies lightly, Karkat stared him down, glaring daggers at his imputence.

"He's in a wheelchair. And you didn't pay attention enough to look out for him, or let him go past. Now pick up your shit and get back to work." He tried to complain again, but 14 should learn to not pick fights with his boss. There were severe consequences for picking fights with this asshole. "**Now.**" Yeah, two seconds and he was out of there, grumbling with his mismatched files. Tavros was a muttering mess in his seat, staring at the floor. Giving a sigh, Karkat shrugged, turning his chair around. Some time in his office would do the kids some good.

Oh, right, Sollux was in the office, too, fiddling around with his terminal, too. Probably trying to hack his way into the system to unlock his keyboard. "Sollux, I locked your keyboard manually. There's nothing you can do doing that."

"Fuck!" He growled, glancing up to glare at him, only to stop and stare at the intern. He let out a sigh, getting out of Karkat's nice leather chair, moving to a cheap-ass chair in the corner, pouting again. KK left Tavros to sit down at his terminal, unlocking shit and taking control of Sollux's. Number 2. Well, he would be proud of that. Probably is, under that annoyed attitude he was giving him right now.

Sollux stared at the wall terminal, staring at his own screen expectantly. Karkat only took a few minutes, submitting the page to the testers. Once he was done he felt Sollux's stare bore into his very skull. But he'd just have to deal with it, he was trying to be a shitty asshole and ignore policies obviously set up under Karkat's power. Karkat's regime. He ran some last-minutes schematic checks, Just to make sure things would be fine, carrying over into tomorrow. Time to get out of this dump.

Finally, he sent a message to the workers still there, saying how he was taking off for the day. He warned them that if they didn't lock up before leaving work, they would know a hell even deeper than the river Styx. After which he kicked Tavros, who was calm by then, out of his office, and locked up before turning back over to Sollux.

"You fucking athhole." He muttered, arms crossed.

"That's what I should be saying. Come on, we're going home."

"Exthcuthe me?"

"Today's John's moving day. You don't have to do shit but I swore we'd go drinking after taking him and his stupid girlfriend to their new suite." The angered worker bee raised an eyebrow, still a little confused. Karkat grabbed his jacket, and his iPhone, and showed him the message Sollux left for him.

'we need two talk KK.'

"We need to talk. We're doing that now." He didn't hesitate after that. Hell no, he got the picture instantly. "Get your jacket, I walked here." Sollux ran off, literally running. Karkat let out a sigh watching him. They had about two hours since John expected them. Just enough time to order Sollux to take a shower and get in some clean clothes finally when they got back.

* * *

John knew Karkat gave his word about making it home alright, but honestly, he couldn't help being curious about everything. He wanted to surprise him and drive them home while he dropped Vriska off with her roomie Kanaya. It took so fucking long to get everything ready for when he and Vriska moved in officially, they worked really hard. Not only that, but they all had so much fun drinking together, Karkat's funny/cute accent was so thick! Who knew some hard liquor and a few beers with friends would get him shitfaced drunk like that? Damnit for being the designated driver, though. Not much fun watching them all drink so much.

John expected Karkat to still be in, or nearby, the suite. He didn't expect him to be around the corner on the same floor, with some tall guy's tongue shoved down his throat unceremoniously.

Naturally, John would have shied away and let his friend have his fun, but they were A, drunk, and B, in the hallway! John really wanted to sneak to the left a little, to find out who his mystery makeout partner was, but what if they saw him? What if they knew that he was staring? God that would be embarrassing! Thank god Vriska agreed to wait in the car while he got them. Okay, he was gonna do it. He was gonna shift a little to the left, and look down the long hallway… and see who it-

Sollux? Holy shit! Yeah, what the fuck was this even about? Egbert's jaw dropped, still obsessively watching. They were making out. He didn't even know that Sollux **was** a homosexual. Okay, this is weird. Stop staring… stop staring… No don't take a picture! Oh god! But then again, he could totally use this to his advantage. Yeah, maybe this could rank up his prankster gambit some more! He might level up! Awesome!

Wow, they're still at it. Though it looked like they just started when he discovered them. Oh geez, Sollux's got him pinned against the wall now, running his tongue along his lips, and down his neck, and-oh god! He can't watch anymore. That little moan he just barely heard from Karkat's chapped lips was way too much. Holy shit! John had to do _the most_ reasonable thing, and rescue Kit-kat from this embarrassing display!

'hey karkat! i need to drive vriska home, why don't i drop you and sollux off, too? hurry up, meet you in the car.'

"Oh, hey, a text. S_oll_ux stoppit a sec." There was an annoyed sound, and John booked it as soon as he saw Sollux pulling back. He was out of there in seconds. Settling in said elevator, John's cherry-red face still felt so hot, that memory implanted in his brain like a tracking chip for a stupid dog. He had to make a pit stop in the lobby bathroom before he went to the car, not knowing what to do with the picture.

It was so clear, too, passionate kissing and bright-red cheeks. Why the fuck did he take this? Well duh! It was proof of drunken sloppy makeouts between two people who may or may not be dating, even if he's pretty sure Karkat said that they never would. Oh yeah, they were working together, and Karkat is really weird about stuff like… that…

He made a mental note to ask Vriska what he should do with this l8ter. Hehehe.

* * *

**I mentioned Gamzee in the first chapter, and yes he actually is going to play a part in this story! A small one, with an implied pairing. He was a pretty big drug addict back when he and Karkat were friends back in college. He has since been in rehab a few times, trying to clean up his act. He and Karkat did have some romantic interaction back in the day; he was the one Karkat 'experimented' with. As a self-proclaimed best friend, they lost contact a few months into KK's relationship with Eridan. He won't be showing up until much later.**

**I feel like giving some more little info, so here: Sollux needs the cuddle with something at night still. It's just a mental assurance that there's something worth waking up, so he wakes up either cuddling someone else, if he has someone to, or a large body pillow. Aside from drinking, Sollux doesn't do drugs. He doesn't even smoke or anything. It's not healthy, and even if drinking isn't good for him, it's the only drug he'll be doing in his life. Sollux hacks things at home, but only during the weekends or during vacation time. Otherwise he might not show up to working in his haze. He knows a tiny bit of Russian, but he's been studying it for a little bit out of curiosity. The first thing he researched: Russian expletives.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	9. Little visits

**Big plans ahead for this story guys. Hehe. I have so many ideas for this story, kinda wish I had these many ideas for my other story. Hmm. Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

Never. Drinking. Again. Those three words are going to haunt his mind till the end of time. Something happened last night, and there a weird purple mark on his neck now, and Karkat didn't know what the fuck happened. They all had some drinks after setting up Egbert's suite, went back to watch a movie for some stupid reason, and after John left to take Vriska home he-

Oh hell why did he even try to sit up? Oh fuuuck that stings.

It's like his head was screaming at him, he really hated this. At least he was back at his suite, John wouldn't leave him alone and let something horrible happen to a drunk friend. So there's that. His computer was blinking, some notification from Trollian? Karkat regretfully made his way up, climbing to the beloved egg chair, cuddling into a blanket with a groan. Oh, Eridan. He started obsessively messaging him since the move. Sometimes he responds. Sometimes the fishy bastard gets ignored which happened significantly less than one would assume unfortunately.

caligulasAquarium began trolling carcinoGeneticist.

CA: kar wwe should a talked last night

CA: are you asleep

CA: really kar

CA: fuckin hell man

CG: WHAT. WHY DO YOU INSIST ON PESTERING ME SO FUCKING EARLY, YOU OBNOXIOUS ASSHOLE?

CG: MY FUCKING HEAD IS KILLING ME. GET THIS COMPLAINT FEST OVER WITH SOME I CAN WADDLE AROUND MY PATHETIC EMPTY VAT OF A LIFE FOR SOME ASPIRIN AND COFFEE.

CG: AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE SHOULD HAVE TALKED LAST NIGHT?

CA: hey mornin beautiful

CA: you get a hangovver

CA: poor kar

CG: NO. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING. YOU WILL NOT BEGIN THIS CONVERSATION WITH 'MORNIN BEAUTIFUL.' YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THAT.

CG: NO.

CA: fine suit yourself

CA: hey kar didn't drink out your livver last night did you

CA: wwe met up at the bar wwith your little friends

CA: sol told me to buzz off but i really wwanted to see you

CA: so how wwas drinkin wwith him

CG: I BARELY REMEMBER IT, AND I DON'T REMEMBER RUNING INTO YOU. TOO MUCH VODKA AND BEER THAT NIGHT. OF COURSE, EVERYONE JUST HAD TO GET ME BEERS AFTER LAUGHING AT MY STUPID ACCENT AND CALLING ME SEAN CONNERY TWENTY TIMES. FUCKING ASSHOLES.

CG: I GOT A GOOD LOOK AT MYSELF IN THE MIRROR AS I WADDLED OVER TO THIS WONDERFULLY GLORIOUS CHAIR. WHICH I'M NOT GETTING UP FROM FOR AN HOUR, MIND YOU.

CA: howw do you look

CA: like shit

CG: NATURALLY. NOW CAN YOU GET ON WITH WHATEVER USELESS POINT YOU WERE GOING AT WITH THIS SO I CAN GET ON WITH THIS QUEST FOR PAIN KILLERS?

CA: fuckin moron

CA: first off you alwways keep meds in the kitchen

CA: second I kinda already did

CA: wwe should meet up for lunch or somethin

CA: you knoww catch up an shit

CG: FIRST OFF

CG: FUCK YOU!

CG: SECOND, I KNOW I KEEP MY MEDS IN THE KITCHEN, I SWEAR TO GOG YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT MY HABITS THAN I DO.

CG: *GOD.

CG: THIRD, I'LL CONSIDER IT IF YOU DON'T TRY TO FLIRT WITH ME OR WHATEVER. BUT OF COURSE THAT'S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE WITH YOU.

CG: APPARENTLY NO ONE CAN RESIST THIS ASS OF MINE.

CA: you said it not me

CA: not like its not true but you wwanted me to back off

CA: cod kar go take some meds or something

CA: go douchecrab

CA: im not respondin until you do

CG: WHATEVER ERI.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, he got up, hobbling his way to the kitchen for an aspirin. Some coffee would be amazing, too. It took him a few minutes to notice the little note on his fridge. 'hi karkat! i set your coffee maker for you and found some painkillers too. aren't I a great friend? Anyway, I know just how much of a bitch hangovers can be, so try to relax since it's a weekend and all. Anyway wish I could have hung out for a little longer, but have fun working for derse! :B'

Wow, why such a long note? Seems useless, but at least he had the decency to make him coffee, right? Karkat just shrugged it off to fetch him much-needed meds, retiring to his room and beloved egg chair once more. Weekends are boring. Why did it seem like he was forgetting something he probably really shouldn't? Hm.

It was such a comforting little notion, his stomach churning and his head slowly settling as he sipped coffee and chugged down his dosage of painkillers. Yesterday was pretty fucking important, something must have happened that he couldn't recall. Well, he had that talk with Sollux at least. It just led up to the same kind of result, but this time it was at least civil. They both agreed to be 'just friends' again, and things were cool. In a mutual sense. Karkat knew he wanted more: maybe a relationship or something. But they worked together, things would change too much.

At least that's what he told Sollux. Idiot actually took that lame excuse.

* * *

As things reached a mutual 'normal', weeks passed by like nothing. Sollux and Karkat went back to their usual ways, hanging out outside of work, still the best of friends. New projects were introduced to the team. Things were calm with Captor, and even circumstances with Eridan weren't that bad. Karkat was almost temped to let him know where he was staying in Boston… Okay, no he wasn't. But he was finally out of that 'crazy stalker ex' status. At the same time Sollux gained a new drinking buddy, so you can bet that he was drinking way more than he should.

He saw them once or twice, actually, it was only for a few minutes passing by them on the way to the local bar but it was still something. Some pompous asshole with shades. Says he ran his own club or something. Karkat didn't care, that was _his_ business. At work, Karkat gained a few more interns, one who was due to start working at the company as soon as possible. Roxy Lalonde, who did actually have some programming skills, and some nameless ones he didn't care about too much.

Summer was in full blast, and holy shit he was so pleased with the AC system at work. He could get away with wearing a light t-shirt on most days. If only his work associates would do their fucking work already, he wouldn't be on edge all the time.

While their work ethic was completely horrid, the constant nagging and rants really did encourage _some_ progress. The team's latest tasks were to create an entirely new program, so as usual, a thousand meetings followed their usual workload. (Their usual late workload, mind you. Goldbawnt seemed to have millions of excuses for every circumstance.) The deadline was coming up soon for the completed program, and _everyone_ was feeling the strain. The team was majorly behind, Karkat needed completed code to finish things up, and it only seemed like the testers were constantly on his ass, making sure that stupid deadline was kept on track. Yeah, thanks guys, really helping productivity.

"So, I probably shouldn't ask you how work is then, should I?" Yeah, isn't that fucking obvious? Karkat let out a sigh, sipping his Mike's in silence. He just got off of work before Dirk gave him a surprise visit, something about needing to blow off some steam. It's always something about Dirk motherfucking Strider. Whether it's his latest projects not giving good results, or his brother choosing to be an ass. Well, maybe it was Dirk who's being the ass… hmm. "How's Derse?"

"A fucking chamber pot of miracles and sunshine. We had five crashes today, seven meetings in this week alone, and to top it all off, most of my associates are fucking themselves over because they just seem to assume the word deadline doesn't even exist. Can you even believe these shitheads?" Strider gave a curt shrug, chugging his beer back. This was his fourth beer! God damn he could hold down his alcohol, was he even buzzed? Karkat was, and this was his first bottle. (Which is really pathetic. Shut up.) "You?"

"About the same, engineering department had to make some cuts in the independent design bureau. So everyone's been tense." Karkat shrugged. The engineers always have it tough in his company. Yet somehow Dirk's maintained that job for years now. "So, you meet up with lil man, yet?"

"You mean your brother? No. Not really my problem either. I know why you suggested to meet him, Strider, and I have NOT been in that kind of mood lately." Dirk was always trying to set him up with someone. In his words, _someone_ needs to get laid. That someone is too engrossed in his work and problems surrounding a certain programmer, so no. Fuck that…

The issue, not… ugh.

"Yeah yeah." Dirk shrugged it off, ordering another beer. And a Smirnoff for Karkat. Wasn't a bad idea, actually. "You ever get real drunk tha'ya do something completely stupid, Vantas?" Oh, a topic change? Well, Karkat may have finally reached the epitome of realization here. Maybe Dirk did have a reason for this night of binge drinking…?

"No, not really, but what is this actually about? Another one-night-stand, Dirk? Moderation is a good practice, you know." Karkat was joking more or less, but something about his facial expression and lingering silence told him all he needed to know. Something turned out a little more serious then casual drunken sex, huh? "What happened?"

"'Strider? Really, I boned a Strider last week!'" He imitated, in a really cartoony way. Karkat didn't even give him the pleasure of laughing his ass off; which that technically should be the proper reaction to an onlooker. They both knew how embarrassing that can be… Okay, Karkat didn't because he's an only child and the rest of his family would live in Kursk right now, but that was beside the point. "Can't blame the lil' man for getting a nice one like him, but fuck man, if there was ever a bigger turn off than that." Yeah, Dirk's ramblings have already been drowned out at this point.

They spent an hour or so, continuing to drink their senses away, just talking about random things. And then about some not-so-random things. Something about alcohol always brought out the truth. And Strider knew that, stupid asshole. Karkat let out a scoff, sipping at his third Smirnoff. "A_l-r_ight. 'cept th' stuuupid asshat S_oll_ux."

"Sollux? Yer ol' roommate?"

"Yeah. Basta_r_d **wants **me. So bad." He gave a curt shrug, hiccuping lightly, a little chuckle.

"A sexy beast like you, Vantas? Nah." He expected the ебут с (fuck off) in response. "So, somethin's obviously in the way. What's up?" Before Karkat could even answer, Dirk shook it off. He already knew. "You work with this dick, don' ya?" The silence was enough to answer him. Yeah, he worked with him. "He's not Coolidge, you know?"

"I knowthat!" Karkat slurred, pouting. "I dunno what to do." Well, even more admittance, it's funny, because the only things he could remember for the rest of that night was confirming something they—hell, everyone—knew. He wanted him too…

* * *

A chill air flew into the room as Karkat woke up to an empty bed, curled up in his blankets for warmth. The dull nausea of a hangover instantly kept him from going back to sleep, and a very familiar ache reached across his back. Giving an annoyed growl, the boss sat up, to check his phone for any new messages. There were quite a few actually, some from Sollux, and Tavros. Two or three from that other intern Roxy. He only checked Sollux's though, he was pretty sure he knew what they were all about.

'board meeting today KK. don't forget.'

'2aw you at the bar la2t niight ju2t leaving wiith 2omeone. dont forget about the meetiing at eleven.'

It's seven thirty, he has plenty of time, fucking asshole. God. "You have work today?" Karkat didn't even look up; he knew Strider wouldn't put on his boxers just to go make coffee. Who would, right? Just as he sat up, Dirk pulled him into his lap, resting his bony-as-fuck chin on the top of his head. Two cups of hot coffee were on the corner table, which Karkat commanded the other to retrieve.

"Yeah. Board meeting. Our annual mainframes testing day is in a month." He explained, taking a sip of strong-ass coffee. Perfection in a cup. "Lucky for me, I've got three hours before I even need to show up." Today was just going to be a normal day at work besides that stupid meeting. As much as the suits were nice for presentation, the weather was getting warmer. Which reminded him, Sollux promised a trip to the beach, he'd need to go shopping for new swim trunks soon. His head pounded vigorously, but it didn't mask the feeling of warm fingers running along his stomach, going lower… and lower… and...

"Wanna quick one before work then, babe?" Those fingers wormed their way even lower, stroking Karkat's inner thighs. "Still casual. Sorry bro, but you're a needy bitch sometimes."

"Nnn… prick."

* * *

**OMGZ KK WHAT ARE YOU DOIN? WHAT ABOUT SOLLUX!**

**Ha, just kidding. Sort of a filler chapter, sorry. Karkat's drinking a lot more than he's used to, even if most of this chapter skips ahead a month and a half.**

**Some more little info, mostly about him and Dirk. They consider themselves, even if Karkat shudders at such a high school-grade term, friends with benefits. Since Karkat barely ever drinks, they more or less just hang out and discus work and shit. Strider annoys the fuck out of Karkat, but he's the only one that has kept up regular interaction with him since college. (Besides Eridan, and now Sollux.) Karkat is also very familiar with Lil' Cal, but much to Dirk's displeasure, his puppet buddy was lost in an unfortunate boating accident. He still doesn't like talking about it.**

**Okay just a secondary note here, I usually don't like using pesterchum chatlogs inside of the stories, but this one was kind of needed. At any rate, don't expect this kind of thing very often. It might happen once or twice, but other than that, not gonna be a regular thing.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	10. What is Operation Battlefield?

**Woot! Wow, these chapter openers suck sometimes… I found out that all of the things I put in italics doesn't get transferred over. And I use italics a lot! Some things I remember to change, but most of them, nah. Ehh, whatever. Enjoy guys! **

* * *

"Uh hey Karkat. Your phone's ringing." Tavros had followed his boss back to the office, working on sorting out his notes for the standard e-mail he and the other interns were instructed to write and send out based on his notes. As for Karkat here, well he had a meeting to lead. Yeah, another one.

Mr. Vantas gave a growl, answering the phone he wished he could ignore. "What is it?"

"Hey man. Wanna meet up for lunch later? There wasn't anything but shitty leftovers in your fridge." Of course he'd raid the fridge. This was Strider's schedule: go drinking, bug the working asshole all day even if _he_ has work, eat everything in their damn place, and leave randomly until the next appearance. (The sex was optional.)

"No. I'm busy and I can't leave work for lunch today." He let out a sigh, Dirk was being annoying. "And don't _even_ ask if you should bring me something. Just go bug someone else. Your brother lives here doesn't he?"

"Yeah. Guess lil man and me could meet up for lunch. Sure you don't want anything?" He sounded bored and uninterested in pretty much anything. Must have been pissed when he woke up and his cuddle toy was missing. If there was one thing Dirk Strider was totally not cool with, it was waking up alone. And yet Karkat was the needy bitch? As if.

"If you not fucking calling me when I'm trying to work counts, then that would be nice." Karkat didn't even wait for an answer, he just said bye and hung up. Tavros was staring still, sitting in his wheelchair even if Karkat always offered the more comfortable chair right nearby him. "_What_?"

* * *

"Alright shitheads. Let's get this little briefing started. First agenda: computers. If those fucking interns reward me with another helping of 'I locked their terminal just in case' reports, there will be hell to pay. Captor." Said coding genius/bastard gave a chuckle through his typical shit-eating grin. It's like not locking up the terminal was some kind of game to him. And the yelling and rants was some amount of reward for him, not a punishment.

"Since none of you bastards got up, I'll start the meeting. Our monthly testing period has been set for exactly a month from today. Right after our final deadline for the A-36 patch deadlines, mind you. The higher-ups have deemed this project Operation Battlefield. No comments about the disgustingly lame name, some bigwig in the higher offices apparently worked his ass off figuring that one out." Karkat cleared his through, still re-gaining his voice from the full three hours of leading that stupid board meeting. Being a stand-in for the main presenter was not fun.

Luckily Roxy had a cup of coffee all ready for him as soon as he stepped into the office. She's efficient at least. This company is a bit manipulative sometimes. It was always some calculated reason, though. That speaker was intentionally asked to stand down for this meeting and he knew why.

These testing periods are over-glorified programming wars between Prospit and Derse. Okay, so it's wasn't exactly a programming war, more like a hacking war. This kind of testing period was the ultimate exorcise in case of a serious hacking emergency. These little games are used to train these useless shitstains in case of a serious hacking emergency. These little games were the designated party time with his old team. They all enjoyed it and made bets and shit. That was just Prospitian ways. Derse handled things in a very adult, mature way. Kind of comforting, actually.

"The go-betweens have already been chosen. No promises if there are any in our cell, but under no circumstances are you to look for them before the Operation begins." Karkat was pacing in front of the whiteboard, writing out the standard protocol, things he saw in the board meeting. "You'll get a fully written report on this project later, but other than that it's the typical schedules and strategies. Prospit won last year, and while this isn't a competition, I've been urged to make sure everyone's at their best."

A few hands flew up, which was a nice change from John's meetings. See, Karkat talks so much during these meetings that some people just participate just to get him to shut up for a few seconds. It helped a least, and while it wasn't his best example of leadership, that wasn't too bad. "Amarant?"

"Sir, y' led the main attack team of ol' Prospit, right? The one that pulled all of the spies an' shit out in seconds flat, right?" He seemed overly excited about this new project. He has quite the creative side when he actually does his work, which is why Karkat didn't move him to a different division. But yes, he was right. Last year's 'Cascade experiment' as they called it, was a horrible performance by Derse. In short, they weren't prepared for the amazing leadership skills that easily bested them, routed out all their little 'spies' as Goldbawnt so-charitably called them, and was able to keep almost every bit of data safe. God, the board meeting was this huge discussion of strategy, and everyone was asking for his advice. Literally everyone, even the CEO.

Karkat sugar-coated it all, saying that he just happened to spot it. He could have really stuck it to them all, about how much they **fucking sucked**! But no, he kept himself from that little pleasure, saving face with the company and all. Everyone in that room knew it anyway.

The meeting proceeded as usual, explaining everything once or twice before dismissing everyone for lunch. Like usual, Sollux was the last one in the room with him. "So, KK. Who was that guy you left with last night? You know, at the bar?"

Sollux was stretching out his back, a little habit Karkat was trying to drill into his skull as a punishment for poor posture. Karkat shrugged it off. "Old friend, if you even could call him that. We met up for some drinks, that's all."

"Jutht some drinks?" Okay, Karkat had to crack a smirk at that one. What was this questioning even about, holy shit!

"Sollux, I can go drinking with an old friend whenever I wan-"

"You were making out with him." Sollux was surprisingly quiet, head down as he checked his phone quickly. "Is it _that_ common, KK?"

"Is _what_ that common?"

"Nothing." He quickly said, shrugging. "Anyway, so he was just a friend then?" He asked, arms crossed. He did that thing where he just kinda looked down at Karkat, with that questioning gaze, like he could detect lies and read his mind and shit. Karkat rolled his eyes, Sollux was obviously being a jealous bitch for _some_ strange reason. Then again, not even Karkat knew about the whole making out thing.

"Yeah. Besides, it's my business. Come on, the interns are ordering takeout."

* * *

Work ended without any troubles, thank god, and Sollux offered to get them both some dinner, but honestly Karkat just wanted to get his shopping done and go home. Naturally, Sollux followed along with him. Two grown men shopping for swim trunks shouldn't be this awkward, but by god it was. They had to walk all around the mall JUST because Sollux wanted red and blue swim trunks, while Karkat got something plain and in grey. They picked up all the other necessary beach items too, like specific towels, good quality sunblock, and new sunglasses. (Sollux bought a pair of those **stupid** shutter shades, just because they had them in yellow and black. He called them Shutterbees and bought them in two seconds flat. Dork. Karkat promptly stated that there was no way he would be seen nearby him wearing those things so Sollux bought a normal pair.)

The cab ride back was quiet, Sollux, like usual, had his arm draped over his boss's shoulder, and a defiant smirk on his face. Sollux snuck a little forehead kiss as Karkat walked him up to his suite. Jerk. He insisted that it was just a friendly kiss before slamming his door closed. And there you have it folks, the last month and a half of their typical interaction. Flirting without the flirting, if that made any sense. It didn't, did it? Well fuck. Karkat grumbled on his way back to his apartment, and the ungodly mess Dirk left for him before going out randomly. No note or text or anything. The man had no tact.

Karkat didn't care; he let exhaustion toss a brick over his head and went to bed.

Skip to the weekend and oh look, time for the beach trip already! Karkat had to push Strider off of him this morning just to get ready, but after a quick shower together he left the asslicker there to whine about not having anything to do for the whole day. He wanted to come to the beach with them. Yeah, no. Rule one in **this** situation was to NOT bring your sex buddy with you to hang out with the guy who wants you _more_ than him. There wasn't even a guidebook for this kind of thing, but any book written in the future WILL have this golden rule on the very first page.

Sollux was waiting for him in his suite, packing immature beach toys into his little backpack while Karkat ranted about the weather. He checked five places, and they all said that it was going to rain today. Which naturally meant that it's the perfect day for the beach! It was still early, so they stopped off for some breakfast. Fast food, it's been forever, hasn't it?

The taxi ride was uncomfortable, the heat was way more intense after breakfast, and they were still fully dressed. Sollux did the smart thing and wore a loose t-shirt and some jeans, but did Karkat? Fuck no! He wore a damn black long-sleeved shirt! And Sollux was berating him for it every step of the way.

"It's amazing how you completely didn't take the heat into account. Thupid asth." Sollux rolled his eyes, thankful for the air conditioning, even if it just barely helped. "Had to rush out to not wake your _boyfriend_?"

"…What?" Karkat glared over to him, arms crossed. "The fuck are you talking about?"

"That guy at your place." Sollux sounded uninterested, but his face didn't hide it very well. He wore the shutterbees proudly to hide his eyes. Even though Karkat told him not to bring those stupid things. "Kind of a dick move though KK. Not telling me you finally got together with someone." His voice faltered ever so slightly, and by god did they both notice.

"What makes you think that we're even an inch towards being together?" He leaned up against the door lightly, just hoping that this little trip in the microwave would be over soon. He wanted to change out of these god-awful clothes.

"Well, for one, he doethn't leave you alone, he callth all the time, you were at a bar with him making out, he obviouthly at your thuite… shall I go on, boss?" Karkat blinked, trying to process everything he just said, and he just said it pretty damn fast. He took it as acceptance to his little offer. "And… you're obviously having sex with him." Karkat's jaw dropped. No, how did he find out about… okay sometimes during that week he found himself having to stop to hold back the… and yeah his mood spiked since Dirk got here too, and- okay, why was this even a problem anyway?

So what if he was getting some, anyway? It's just casual stuff, nothing official at all! Sure, he didn't want to tell him at all about Dirk, and he was doing a good job hiding it, but… "I am **not** dating that insufferable little puppet fucker." He hissed, glaring at Sollux again. "Why do you even care, anyway? So what?"

"Tho what? KK I-"

Sollux caught himself. Good. Karkat had a good feeling he knew what sort of shit Captor was about to spew. Something they both knew not to go into. "I-I'm your betht friend, and you should let me know about these things!" Nice cover up, Captor.

* * *

**And le plot. It _thickens_! Hehehe. Shutterbees. Sollux was about to say something pretty bad there, wasn't he? Especially at this point in their relationship. "KK I… I need to eat the nachos!"**

**...Okay, that wasn't funny. Hahaha…**

**Awkward. Anyway, love all of the reviews guys, I lovuls you aaaaall! Mwah!**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	11. Sun and a hint of jealousy

**Oh my god, these 2 AM uploads. Grr. Oh well.** **And about that italics thing, yeah I just didn't take notice of it, the uploader _does_ transfer them over. Whoops, my bad guys!**

* * *

Needless to say, the conversation died there. Karkat was too warm and Sollux wasn't going to push his luck either. Thirty minutes is a LONG time to wait while you're overheating in a fucking taxi. A. Long. Time.

Karkat would have been surprised that Strider didn't call, but guess what? He forgot to bring his phone! Lovely.

Carson Beach is a nice little location, and with the sweltering summer heat, the countless little kids running around, and Sollux still not saying anything this had to be just a great event for today. Fuck it, Karkat was going to enjoy his beach trip and this drama was NOT going to ruin it. After rushing to the beach house to change and managing to find a good spot, the two relaxed for a little bit, laying out their towels and taking in the view.

"Sollux, we have to talk about that whole thing." Karkat grabbed out the sunscreen, his pale ass needed this shit right now. "Dirk and I aren't in a relationship, and we aren't ever going to be in one." Sollux gave a light hum, deep in his thoughts. He didn't believe him, which was natural. "Did you already put sunscreen on yet? I am not letting you use a burn as an excuse for getting out of work."

"Nah, I don't burn anyway." Sollux shrugged it off casually, sitting up and stretching. "So, Dirk, was it? Why does that name seem so familiar?"

"College." He answered, making sure his arms and everything were covered. "We met him on the campus, remember? The puppet guy." He was silent for a few minutes, before cracking up.

"Oh, hah, yeah!" He nodded it off, stretching his back. "What do you _even_ see in him anyway?"

"The sex is nice." Karkat was blunt, very much so. Glancing back at Sollux, he handed off the bottle. "Get my back." He demanded. Sollux's laughing came to an abrupt end, and that look of pure shock was something he was never forgetting.

"And, uh… so is that it? Just the, you know." He unscrewed the bottle, telling Karkat to lie down, which he did quite compliantly. Sollux poured the sunscreen onto his back lightly, getting an annoyed hiss at how cold it felt. "I mean, yeah…" As Sollux rubbed in and spread the stupid powdery smelling shit, Karkat relaxed finally, resting his head on his arms. "I knew you two were already doing it, but not how far it went or anything."

Karkat relaxed into the touch, Sollux's long finger rubbed all over his back, light massaging the muscles and running his hands along his spine. God it felt nice. "Yes, that's it. There is no relationship Sollux." He wouldn't try BSing him or anything. He was just going to be honest and end it there. "And I'm sure you can see to what extent we're doing it." There were scratch marks on his back, some light bruises on his thighs, bite marks around his neck and down his back. All healing and barely noticeable, but still there.

Yeah, Sollux noticed, running his hand down his spine and rubbing his shoulders in a light massage earned him a little content humming, too. He was good at this! "Tho what are you trying to tell me KK, that it's all just casual or something?" His tone sounded way more suspicious than it needed to be. He ran his hands down his back, nails running along a semi-recent scratch mark. "Do you really think _that's_ casual?"

"Yes." Karkat let out a sigh, sitting up even if that little massage was amazing. "It's always casual with Dirk and there's no changing that." He grabbed the bottle again, pouring some into his hands. Lean down for a second, I'll get your face."

Sollux nodded, following his orders. Karkat was gentle, pulling his face closer and rubbing the shit all around his cheeks and nose and everything. He had Sollux do the same before pushing him away to finish up. He wanted to kiss him, to hold him in his arms and just be there with him. His crazy, loud, bossy, yet extremely compassionate and caring best friend… Too sappy? Yeah, totally.

Eventually, Karkat's ranting about skin cancer and UV rays got to him, he applied his own sunblock just in an attempt to shut him up. They didn't say much, just laying down next to each other and enjoying the warm weather and childish screams of little asshole kids with their asshole parents.

"Kar? That you?" Sollux glanced up, spotting ED and his slicked back hair any day. No scarf or cape or anything, just a pair of purple striped swim trunks. Great…

"Oh, hey Eridan." Karkat greeted him, leaving Sollux to glare. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah. I was just here with Fef, an…" He shook it off, sitting on the towel next to them. Who said he could sit next to them? Although, Sollux's ears perked up with the mention of 'Fef.' He knew Feferi was related to this bastard, was she here, too? "W-when'd ya get here, Kar. We could'a hung out or somethin'."

"Recently." Karkat shrugged, sitting back, against Sollux. "Lispy over here promised a beach trip. So I fucking got one." Eridan let out a chuckle, crossing his arms, entertained at the image. Sollux crossed his arms, annoyed.

"There thome reason you're still here, fishdick?" Karkat rolled his eyes, and elbowed Sollux in the side quite efficiently.

"Behave, jackass." He scolded. Eridan let out a chuckle, looking over Karkat quietly. He stopped at his neck, and a bite mark that was particularly clearer than the rest.

"Uh… So, how has work been?" He seemed a bit suspicious, and a tiny glare he sent up to Sollux more than confirmed it. "I see you'_vv_e been ha_vv_in some fun already."

"Relax, Ampora. Dirk's in town." Karkat stood up, brushing sand off of his legs. "I'm going to the water, don't kill each other while I'm gone." As he walked off towards the shore, Sollux stayed behind, to watch their things, naturally. Sollux laid back on his towel, even if it meant having Eridan staring him down with those deep eyes. They were almost purple in their hue, at least from this angle.

"What? Like KK thaid, it was Dirk, or whatever his name is." Sollux rolled his eyes, like the other could really see it though. He propped his head up with his arms, spotting Karkat by the water. Eridan shrugged and let up, surprisingly. So he knew about it too? Okay, now he was curious. "So you know about that."

"A course I knoww about that! I mean shit, he's the only one who Kar e_vv_en lets touch him, after all." Ampora stared out into the scenery, strangely quiet now. "So, he still not letin' you talk him into anything?"

"Yes. Ithn't that a good thing for you? Buzz off, asshat!"

"Hey, e_vv_en if I'm his ex, I w-wouldn't take advantage of him like that. Cod know-ws he's been through enough 'cause a me." He let out a sigh, stretching out his back and nicely toned swimmer's abs. Eridan's got a nice form, muscles and everything. Personality wise he's seriously lacking though. Not like Sollux payed attention to him, he was too busy watching his boss shrug off a bunch of girls that just approached him. "You ha_vv_en't been tryin' anythin' with him, ha_vv_e you? I w-will not tolerate some fuckin' bastard takin' advantage a him."

"I'd say the say about you, Ampora. You're the one I don't understand. How did you even get hith attention four years ago?" Sollux grumbled. "Why would he even go for a dipshit like you?"

"W-we were friends. And it's none of your business anyw-way. You two work together, he's not gonna date you. I w-won't tolerate you tryin' to force him into somethin' like this!" Eridan went back to staring at him, a deadly peering stare that just managed to piss Captor off.

"That whole work thing ith thupid. He'll realize that and thee how much we're already like a couple." Sollux growled, glaring at him through those stupid shades. "It's not any of **your** business, stop trying to interfere!"

"Idiot." One little word was what set it off. Sollux stood up immediately, throwing off the shutterbees and glaring fully down at Eridan. He flinched, but kept glaring back at him with that determined glare.

"Oh I'M the idiot, am I? Well than, lord Athhole, enlighten me on exactly **why** that is!" He hissed, arms crossed and everything. "If you know so much then fucking tell me!"

"You don't understand him at all, w-what he's been through. Don't even lecture me about-"

"Heeeey! Come on you two, let's all swim along together now. And Mr. Grumpy gills, you should reely calm down!"

* * *

His wall of defense is shattering. It has been for a while now, but it's time like those, the light touches, the backrub he received, and all the consideration, it chipped away at him. Karkat Vantas was a bundle of defense, and it was so hard to hold back around Sollux. He didn't want things to get too far. He didn't want to be with him, with someone he worked with. He did really want to be with Sollux. He wanted those arms around him, hugging him. He wanted those lips kissing him, telling him nice sweet things and whispering in his ear… But…

He let out a sigh, with the cool water washing over him with the waves, Karkat's thoughts seemed so far away now. Sollux wasn't making things easy for him, and Eridan being here was only going to do more harm. Honestly, not even Strider helped. Everything made him think about that kiss. The one two months ago, the really intense one he caused himself. It wasn't fair. He should just let it go a run into his arms, let things happen. Karkat should just give up and go to him with little restraint. He should just say fuck it and listen to what every single solitary second is telling him to do.

And then he'd get hurt again.

"Uhm, Excuse me?" Karkat's thoughts once again left him, glancing towards a group of girls approaching him. He was just standing half in the water, thinking. These girls meant nothing to Karkat Vantas. He didn't find them attractive, if anything they should be covering up all the skin they're wearing with those bikini's. Dirk calls him a prude sometimes, but, okay, maybe it was true. "You were just standing around here, must be pretty _boring_ being at the beach all alone."

Bluh, this chick was flirting with him, dragging along her blushing, staring little groupies. She obviously has no idea what she's getting into here. Probably thinks he's some horny teen only interested in her enlarged plastic breasts and her slim body. Nope. Karkat shrugged, "I'm with a friend now, he's watching our things." He pointed him out, but wasn't really paying attention. Karkat walked a little further into the water, up to the knees a little. And unfortunately, the girls followed.

"So, the name's Anne, and these two are Vanessa and Harriet." Karkat rolled his, waving to the girls uninterested. Did he tell them his name? Fuck no. Aaaaand they don't take the hint. Well fuck. They kept talking, something about their swimsuits, and other things he REALLY didn't care about. Okay, way to ruin the moment. They must have figure he was too shy to respond back or something. But nah, wasn't listening.

He glanced back to the towels quietly. Hey, at least he isn't the only one getting bugged by girls. Some tall chick with long curly brown hair was nearby, sitting on his towel now and… hugging him? What? Why did she look familiar? "So, anyway, you still haven't told us your name!" Anne said, following him into the shore. Karkat rolled his eyes, the water drenching his stomach. He didn't want to, but he gave them his first name, still sounding bored. Why haven't they just fucked off yet? "Wow, exotic." Ugh.

Yeah, that's enough of this. Holding his breath, Karkat dunked his head under the surface for a few seconds, hoping that they'd be gone by then. Nope. Well, time for plan B, completely ditch them. As they were talking amongst themselves, he took his leave of them, not even waving goodbye or anything.

Of course they followed. Fuck! And that chick was still latched onto Sollux, seemingly getting them to stop fighting or something. Anne was right behind him, and she even hook an arm around his skillfully. "Hey, where you goin' babe? Back to your towel?" The other two ditched halfway but she was on him like stink of a rotting horse's asshole. He was glad to get back to the towels, and to familiar people he knew could get this flighty broad off of him.

He knew what to do in this situation. If there's anything being around Strider for so long as taught him, it's this. Sollux was staring right at him as Karkat walked up, shook his arm free and leaned down, pulling Sollux into a tight bro-kiss. Which… is like any other one, but specifically directed to let clingy women know exactly what they're interested in: **not them**.

And Sollux seemed to react in just the right way, bless him, pulling Karkat against himself, entangling his hands in his hair and moaning (fucking _moaning_) as Karkat pulled away. Slow and sensual. Like a picturesque scene in a romcom, like that one about the girls making out to stop the boys at the bar from hitting on them. And it totally worked in this situation, too.

Never seen a chick run away so fast, apologizing and spewing shit about gay guys or whatever. Probably embarrassed as hell, too. Eridan was in complete shock, and the chick nearby them went completely silent. A few awkward moments passed by until they were all sure that Anne girl was gone, Sollux snickered and that gave Karkat enough of a signal to push away, sitting on his towel defiantly.

"Oh my cod, Kar, w-what the fuck w-was that all about?"

And the crab just laughed in response. Karkat Vantas, who can't appreciate a good joke or even give a chuckle at anything besides his movies was laughing his ass off, laying on his beach towel like and chuckling like an immature college student. Not even a simple pity chortle could be given in other situations, but this? Fuck no, he was losing it, and didn't even care. Sollux definitely earned back his bro points today.

* * *

**Hehehehehe, bro-kisses. Yeah, I think you've been around Strider a little too much there, KK.**

**Anyway, how about some more little info about everyone? Karkat smoked when he was in college. I'll go into it more, but with smoking it's more of a distraction then anything. He long since quit, but stress relief is stress relief, you know? Eridan's a heavy smoker, or at least he was after he and Karkat broke up. But Eridan's surprisingly protective of the people he cares about. Dirk is, too, especially when it come to their mutual cutie-pie friend. I wouldn't want to spoil why, though. (Aren't I devious?)**

**As you would expect, Karkat is really pale, but he burns very easily. Him and sunburns do not mix, he gets really bitchy and obsessively put on aloe vera until the skin peels. Then spends the extra time to meticulously peel off the skin and take a shower no matter what the circumstances. And he doesn't like people seeing his burns or tan lines or anything, so he always packs a jacket when he has to go out in the sun for too long. He really likes those expensive, nice-smelling sunscreen with the added body lotion shit.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	12. Glub glub

**Hey guys, sorry for the kind of late update, but here you go! Thank you to the reviewer who caught that little mistake in the last chapter, with the cutoff being weird. I fixed that as soon as I could, thank you for pointing that out. :3**

* * *

Your name is Eridan Ampora, and you have made the worst decision in your entire life. Nothing could compare to this, even if what happened technically had nothing to do with you. It's like you literally just ordered someone with some knife-shooting gun to fire, and it ripped through his heart just like that. That's how badly this hurt him, and this is your entire fault.

Fuck, you shouldn't have even let that guy _talk_ to him! But something tells you that he would anyway, and at least then you could have had an excuse to tell him. But no, it's nothing like that. He's sitting on the bench outside of the main lobby, smoking his second cigarette in a row and probably lamenting everything that has ever happened to him as he held his feelings underneath a lake of concrete mix, just waiting for it to dry. It's painful to watch him cry because of you. Yeah, this raging asshat is crying, at least he was before. Now he's just staring out into space lighting his third cig of the past hour.

And yet you can't find it in you to comfort your love. You can't do it; the only things you can do are text him and watch from inside the building. He's crying, all alone. What the hell is your problem, not going out there and holding him in your arms! That fucking bastard is never gonna get near Kar again. Never gonna call him another thing, never gonna hurt him again. Even if it meant calling up your dad like you did and having that fucker fired, it was worth it to get some amount of payback.

You had to keep going with work, but when you took a break to check up on him, three cigarettes turned to six, and it's only been about two hours, holy shit! He was gonna get sick at this rate. Okay, you've had enough of this, he needs to stop this chain smoking. You need to buck up and take things into your own hands, be the man that ne needs right now!

…Uh…Yeah…

You don't get far. In fact, you were just about to get up when some tall fucker approached him. This prick with his spiky hair and his pointy glasses, shit, who even is this guy? Who knows what this guy is doing here, but Kar isn't yelling at him even though he interrupted his personal time alone. Whoever this is doesn't seem pleased, though. Most likely from Karkat's smoking. In fact, he even reached out for the lit cigarette, the seventh one he just lit up. He took it right from Karkat's mouth. Did Karkat yell and bark, and lecture him at all? NO.

You should walk right out there and yell at him to let Karkat be alone to think, but you can't do anything. You can't do anything to be a good friend, or a good boyfriend. (Or ex-boyfriend, at least.) You can't-and won't-do anything, mostly because something about the way Karkat completely froze as this guy messed with his hair, and seemed to be talking or something. The way he didn't even say anything in response told you enough. He called whoever this was. He knew him, and he would much prefer to be around him than anyone else Kar knew.

And like a good friend trying to make amends, you left. You went back to work, to give him even more space. You really didn't want to leave, if anything you wanted to walk out and take him back, show him all the love and adoration he deserved, all of the feelings you should have told him about from the moment you shared that first kiss. But you didn't. You were going to regret this later and you understood that, too.

Your name is Eridan Ampora, and as much as you hate it and want him back, you're nothing to him anymore, and he has plenty of reasons to hate you. Especially after pretty much causing what **he** did to him.

* * *

So, his ex just walked up, and made out with his other ex, after this whole awkward conversation with your cousin and her ex, who's also your ex, and holy shit this is fucking confusing. Kar finally stopped laughing and snorting like a crazy guppy and just went to laying on his stomach, tanning a little. Fef had Eridan go back and grab their things so everyone can sit together. Yeah, Fef, that is who this was, by the wway.

Feferi Peixes, his beloved cousin and the fourth ex in this ring of exes Had a meeting in Boston yesterday. Okay, it was more like a party honestly. Her mother owns a major baking company, and recently falling ill, is forcing her to take over the company earlier than expected. Fef really hates the thought of it, but she loves her family, and taking over the company is her way of showing it. She's going to make some major changes once she's officially in charge.

Fef's really grown up since college, getting even taller, even prettier. She still has the model's figure, using as little makeup as she can and enjoying her brightly colored bikini. You two were having quite a bit of fun as a family, enjoying the nice weather and just spending time for the two of you. Although once she saw Sol, she was all over him, chatting up a storm, and basically clinging to him. Honestly it's not a pretty sight. Even Kar's aggravated, glaring up at them every once and a while. Coming back with all of their stuff, it's almost like that kiss never even happened.

"So, Sea-lux! You and Crab-catch are…"

"Friends, Fef." Eridan quickly answered, putting their things down quickly. He already shook out their beach towels as soon as he got there. Feferi attacked him with a tackle hug, only to take her towel and go right back to Sollux. "An yeah, they just kissed an eweryfin, but that w-was to get that one girl away, right Kar?"

"Maybe I kissed him because I wanted to." Karkat scoffed at what he just said, shaking it off. "We're just friends, Peixes, and it's staying that way." He didn't ever have to confirm that yes, that kiss meant nothing really. Yet Karkat was almost bragging about it at this point, he didn't quite understand why.

"Oh, whale, okay then." Feferi shrugged. "Oh, Sol-fish, have you gone swimming yet?" She asked, excitedly. Sollux just shook his head, it looked like he was about to say something but Feferi got him up, practically pulling him along to the water. So now things were pretty much silent, and it was just them. Karkat's attention was pretty much divided at this point, Ampora had no idea what it was on though.

He had to break the awkward silence somehow. "So… Kar, you newer really mentioned how w-work was going. Things been doin' alright with him?" Eridan laid back on his towel, adjusting his indigo shades while he was at it. He couldn't help but stare at the contours of his ex-boyfriend's frame, his near perfect figure, his choice ass… Yeah he was staring at his ass, deal with it!

"Work's been fine. It's fucking obnoxious getting these miserable jackasses to do their work on time, but I have methods." He shrugged, still staring out towards the water. "What about you?"

"Oh, the company's been really lackadaisical lately. Music diwision's really takin' a beatin' lately." He shrugged. The only reason he got into work here was to live on his own. His father may be the major CEO in the fishery industry, but there was no way in hell he was taking it over. He could have his own life; fuck being stuck in an office and some stuffy mansion all his life.

"That sucks." Karkat wasn't really listening, he was just way too busy staring at something, Sol and Fef, playing in the water like little kids, having quite a lot of fun, no doubt.

"You know, you can go join 'em. I'll w-watch our shit."

"Screw that." Karkat turned over finally, laying on his back and adjusting his sunglasses. "If he wants to go act like a fucking child with his ex-girlfriend then more power to him." There was an obviously jealous tone to his voice. They both heard it… "Whatever." Was he really that jealous? They're just friends, and they've both confirmed that.

"Kar, you said you w-weren't gonna date him, right?" He asked, getting a quick nod in response. "Okay, just stop me if I'm wrong, but you're not treatin' him like you are w-with Strider, right?"

An immediate answer. Karkat sits right the fuck up and glares. Even with his eyes covered those thin eyebrows hide nothing. "What the **hell** is wrong with you? The whole thing with Dirk is an occasional fling, meaning nothing and only meant to blow off some steam! Anything like that only works in certain situation, douchgills, and it wouldn't even work anyway! So yeah, Ampora, I'm gonna stop you there, you are completely wrong. So far in the wrong that you went beyond sea level and fucking drowned!"

They both sat there, completely silent. Okay, Karkat was definitely not wanting something casual with Sollux. Yep, totally established there. "So, you w-want more, then." That wasn't a question, it was clearly a statement. And suddenly Eridan understood the situation, he could tell what he was going through and almost felt guilty for it. "Kar..."

* * *

Okay, how in the hell did it end up like this? An entire day of playing on the beach, and a nice dinner after making sandcastles and going to play in the water was fine. But when Feferi said she had to leave for her flight earlier than expected, and wanted Sollux to be there to see her off, he thought she meant having to wake up early, like any normal person. But no, that's way too unreasonable. Before they knew it, Sollux and Karkat were staring at each other in the elevator of this ever popular beach-side hotel with a single card key. They live in town, why did they have to stay in a stupid hotel? Well apparently, because of Peixis and her weird back-ass-ward logic. That's why.

"Well, thith is awkward." Sollux led them both to their room, only to find that, lovely, there's only one bed? What kind of fucked-up joke is this? Sollux went to explore the room on his own, while Karkat went right for the bathroom, pulling off the t-shirt he borrowed from Eridan. Damnit, there's a huge sunburn on his stomach now. Stupid sun… Karkat growled lightly before tossing the shirt to the ground and fetching his boxers. Can't exactly sleep in sandy swim trunks, now can he? He just seemed to walk out at the right time, too, catching Sollux pull off his trunks, facing away to give him the best view possible of his-

Yeah, he slammed the door shut, hearing a snicker from behind the door. "You timed that, didn't you, you fucking jackass!" He yelled, only getting more laughing from him. Karkat waited a few minutes before leaving the room again, diving for the bed and avoiding Sollux's gaze."Dick."

"Bitch."

"Anal snatcher."

"Teathe."

Karkat rolled his eyes, curling under the blankets. As much as he'd love to sleep on his stomach, that stupid sunburn would give him issues. "When you're done stripping, why don't you go the fuck to sleep?" He felt Sollux get under the blankets, too, a little too close for comfort. "Stay on your side, bastard."

"Nope." A surprised squeak sounded from the shorter man as a long, wiry arm wrapped itself around his waist. "Have to have something to cuddle with."

"I am not a stuffed animal, let go of me!" Karkat tried to pulled his arms away, but Sollux only pulled him back, resting his arms riiiight above his stomach. "Sollux, as your boss, I'm giving you an order." Still he didn't budge, pulling him against his chest. Oh god, they were spooning at this point, weren't they? Oh god! "Captor!"

"It'th not work. Since we're not at work, it's a general policy of mine not to listen to you. Like when you said not to let those little kids bury me under the sand today. That was fun, though." They didn't bury his face like Karkat worried about, but hell, it felt nice anyway being under the hot sun. Karkat tried to get out of his grip again, but fuck no; Sollux was getting in his cuddling. He took drastic measures, running his hand along the sunburned stomach, eliciting a sharp hiss from the other. Victory is his, it seems.

"Fucking prick." He mumbled. And that was that, Sollux won this little argument. This heated debate of the ages, right here on floor whatever of this stupid hotel Sollux Captor has gain this miniscule victory. Whoo.

They both stayed like that for hours, neither one falling asleep. It was too weird for Karkat, but for Sollux, it was more than that. It was weird and he didn't want to wake up for the moment to end. So instead he tried keeping up a tiny conversation, which turned out to just make their situation eveb more awkward. Another hour passed and Karkat was half asleep. Sollux, however, was still wide awake.

Leaning forward ever so slightly, Sollux observed the little prick in his arms, his light skin, his half-lidded eyes staring out at the nearest wall, his bright red eyes glossed over sleepily. Sollux couldn't get enough of this. "Tho, what's so wrong about this, KK?"

"What's so wrong about what?" He muttered. For once his voice was soft and relaxed. So different from what Sollux was used to.

"About being together." Karkat was silent for a few moments, a sign that he probably didn't get it in his sleepy state. "As a couple, you know?"

He looked over to see a pained frown, Karkat in his daze didn't even bother to hide it, too. He felt so bad for asking now, so instead he settled into the bed, trying to fall asleep quicker. Damn his nosy tendencies. Damn them. After a while, Sollux spoke again, softer, quieter. "I wouldn't hurt you, KK. I really want this, but I know you don't. It'th… it'th okay…"

All he heard before slipping from consciousness into the dream world was a soft murmur. He could barely understand it, too. "I know you wouldn't… But someone else might…"

* * *

**Bluh, not really liking how this chapter ended up, but oh well. So they played around in on the beach a little and had some feelings things. And that Eridan interlude, too. Just a little note here, that was Dirk, stopping Karkat's smoking chain. He did get sick after that, btw. **

**Whoot, so we're getting a little bit closer to learning about KK's past, hehehe. Don't worry, all shall be revealed in due time.  
**

**Maybe in the next chapter. If I feel like it.  
**

**EDIT: Omg I just have trouble with last names sometimes it seems. OTL. Fixed now. Grrz sorry.  
**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	13. Cuddle buddies

**Urgh, me and last names sometimes. The typos just materialize out of thin air, I swear, guys.**

* * *

Sollux awoke way early in the morning to his cellphone buzzing against the table. He didn't want to leave Karkat's side, he was just so warm and quiet, and peaceful for once. That dark black hair against the pillow just slightly. He didn't make a sound as you reached over for the phone, answering it quietly. You didn't recognize the number at all, but the caller ID said Strider. He were sure that this wasn't Dave's phone though.

Yeah, they hung out occasionally, but it wasn't ever much. Just some drinking. Sometimes they got a little too drunk and ended up waking up next to each other. But that's fine. He's used to it, apparently. Says it's a bad habit that landed his brother a boyfriend he still won't make it official with. Which is confusing as shit, but whatever. Strider's a cool guy, so whatever. He keeps himself healthy, so that's good.

"Who ith thith and why are you calling thith early?" His lisp's always horrible in the morning. He kept his voice quiet, shifting to his back while keeping the arm under Karkat wrapped around his waist. He didn't answer for a few seconds, which was a bit confusing.

"Hey man. Name's Dirk." KK's fuckbuddy. Well this is a little weird. "Is this the lisping bastard Kitkat's always raging about?"

"Tho he talkth about me often then, huh?"

"Nah, that's the name on the contact list. Lispy Bastard. Vantas forgot his phone." Hah, he sounded like a pompous asshole. What did Karkat see in him? Was it the… okay, he really didn't know what this guy looked like anyway. Huh.

"No shit. Yeah, thith ith him." Sollux glanced over as Karkat shifted in his sleep, curling against his side. So cute. "Tho, KK told me about you. Ith that the only reathon why you called?"

The other let out a light sigh, and it seemed like he moved or something before responding. "Is he gonna be home tomorrow? I thought I'd wake up next to him, but no." No, because Sollux was the lucky one to wake up next to him. Take that, asshole.

"We met up with an old friend at the beach, and she wanthh uth to thee her off when she goeth out of thate thith morning." Damn this lisp. Damn it… But it doesn't seem like Dirk had any trouble deciphering what he was saying, so that's a relief. "Anyway we thtayed at a hotel for the night." He seems to accept it, for the most part. Sollux guessed that he just really wanted to wake up with him, and not alone. "Tho no morning thex, thorry."

He chuckled, before some kind of movement sounded. "Damn. Well, is he awake?" _Why_…?

"Nah, thtill athleep." _In my arms._ _But damn he's a heavy sleeper when he wants to be._ Dirk let out another 'damn.' "Hey, mind if I ask you thomething? How long have you and KK been, you know…"

"About two years now." He must have been expecting this question. Or maybe he gets asked a lot or something. "Met him at college, then he hooked up with this giant tool. Next thing I know he's single and depressed. Things just escalated from there." Sollux took in as much info as he could, something happened two years ago and wound up depressing KK? That's a side of him he's never seen… Feeling movement at his side, Sollux let out a sigh. He asked Dirk to call him back later to possibly tell him more about this and they left the conversation at that.

Two years ago… Two years… Well, three years ago they broke off their friendship, and apparently Eridan dated him for two years… Fuck, this was confusing. So, alright, according to Dirk, he's been single for two years, at least from what Sollux is assuming. That leaves the possibility his relationship with ED being…

He spent the remainder of the morning dwelling on the issue, trying to figure everything out himself. He didn't even notice when Karkat finally awoke, sitting up and pulling away from Sollux as soon as he could. Karkat was still groggy, reaching for his phone once again, to check the time. About seven AM. Great. "The fuck is up with you?" He finally asked, leaning back and stretching. Sollux glanced over almost confusedly, staring at a shirtless Karkat glaring back at him. Sollux didn't answer though. He wouldn't want Karkat figuring out exactly who it was he was just talking to, right? No, of course not. Sitting up, Sollux stretched as well, hoping Karkat just droped the issue. Which he did.

The rest of the day proceeded normally, breakfast before seeing FF off, Eridan's completely unnoticed flirting with his ex, Sollux's obviously noticed flirting joining it. By the time lunch rolled around, Karkat just wanted to go home. So telling Ampora to fuck off, they called for the Taxi back home. By then Sollux's curiosity finally got the better of him. "So, for exes you and ED get along better than I would have thought."

Karkat shrugged, messing with his black shirt. Eridan gave him the clothes he lent the man, saying how Kar should've thought ahead. And of course his seatbelt was rubbing against the burn annoyingly. "He's not that bad when he wants to be. Besides, he really doesn't like making his cousin see that side of him." Sollux was learning a lot of things about their past relationship, like how they know each other's sleep schedules still, and how Karkat knows how to style his hair just right. They seemed like a good match, really. Besides Ampora's constant need of attention, they must have been really close. Sollux felt a little jealous, actually.

Yeah, the guy he's pretty much in love with knowing so many intimate details about an ex, like his tickle spot, or when certain things he said strikes a nerve a little too harshly, or that thing about his neck being sensitive when Karkat helped him adjust his tie this morning. Sollux could only imagine what it would be like with them like that. "Yeah… Tho, you two were together for two years, right?"

Karkat shrugged. "Yeah, we broke it off two years ago… It's probably obvious how mutual that wasn't." His whole tone was back to normal, scowling up at him. Karkat was all about eye contact, and since Sollux decided to give the shutterbees a rest, they were staring eye to eye. "Why are you asking now? Something insanely interesting about my past relationships or something?"

"Just knowing what to look out for when we get together, babe." The crab scoffed, taking that as some sarcastic retort. It wasn't. But Sollux had a good way of hiding it. Two years ago… The same time Dirk said he and Karkat started that whole casual thing… Was Karkat why Karkat was depressed, as he mentioned? Because that 'giant tool' could have definitely been Eridan. In fact, yeah, it was definitely Eridan. "So, two years ago, you were single, and you and Thrider got together…"

"We didn't get together, damnit! We just started with this weird thing and it's lasted for almost two years. That's it." Casuals for over a year. Yeah, one would call that a pretty solid NON-casual relationship, but once again, this is a Strider we're talking about here. "Why would you even ask about that, anyway? You don't normally care about thi-"

The phone rang right at the wrong time. Strider. Shit. Sollux picked up the phone casually, hoping Karkat just ignores him for right now. "Thup."

"Nothin'. Vantas got a call from the company. Some meeting. I already wrote it down and everything." Sollux threw a glance to Karkat, who settled in his seat and started glaring out the window instead. If he could pull this off he can overt a crisis, and maybe even get some more information. He had to try, at least.

"Cool. Hey, you buthy tonight?" Sollux shot another glance to KK. No change. "Wanna go drinking or something? I'll buy."

"I'm not gonna tell all of Vantas's little bed quirks over drinks, man. If that's what you're after." Sollux snickered. "But sure, that might be cool. What time?"

* * *

Like a proper gentleman, Sollux escorted his boss back to his suite, both of them were quiet in the elevators. As far as KK was concerned, his work associate has been really spacey all day. Staring off at nothing in particular, messing around on his phone a lot more. Maybe it's just from spending a day with Feferi or something. Who knew? At any rate, Sollux dropped him off at the door, something about needing to take a shower or something. It's only noon, though… Whatever, Karkat had shit to do today anyway.

He walked into his unlocked suite expecting the familiar sight, Dirk on the couch watching TV, with a pizza on the coffee table and everything. He glanced up at the other curiously before going back to his stupid My Little Ponies cartoon. Why were his friends so weird sometimes? "Hey." Karkat tossed his things on the floor and went right to the couch, letting out a sigh as he plopped down next to the man. "Stayed the night with a friend. I would have called, but obviously I forgot my phone."

He seemed to accept it without any troubles, when he's watching his shows no one can interrupt his attention. At least for very long. Getting a response out of him would be impossible until the commercials came on. Karkat in the meantime went to fetch his laptop. It was a marathon or something; Dirk wouldn't be leaving that couch for hours.

Finally the commercials rolled on and he glanced over to give some amount of response. "I know. Should've told me sooner."

"Like I knew his ex was going to be leaving the state this morning." Karkat rolled his eyes, pulling his focus back to his computer. Dirk shrugged, pulling the other into his lap. Karkat didn't mind too much, but still there were some complaints here and there. Strider just needed something to hold, and if it wasn't Cal, than it was a pillow, or someone else. So naturally he would be a little clingy right now, being forced to sleep alone. He went back to staring at the screen as Karkat opened up a chat with Eridan, wishing he had some ear plugs or something. And he calls _him_ the needy bitch?

A few hours passed with this going on, Karkat was doing to organizing of his files for work, and writing out plans for Operation Battlefield. From his information, each cell would have at least one betrayer, and it could be anyone, an intern, or coder, some random onlooker… There was no telling, really. It's random unless there's an established plan set by the higher-ups. Karkat wasn't allowed to guess who in his cell the betrayer was, but the most he could do is study how to handle the situation. A what-if situation was the closest he could get to planning.

Last year their betrayers were so weak, Derse was bound to lose. But he's not a Prospit programmer anymore. The most he could do at this point was to write hypothetical situations for each of his workers.

He opened up a photographed list of each worker, writing down potential strategies they would use in the situation. It was pretty funny, Sollux's company photo looked ridiculous, his hair was all messy, and there was a lot of glare coming from his glasses, which he refused to take off. He didn't even notice Dirk staring down at him as he smirked, just staring at his stupid mug. "Hey, I recognize that guy." Karkat jumped, glancing up to see that typical smirk, and bright orange eyes. Why were his shades off all of a sudden? "That's Sollux, right?"

"Yeah. Asshole just had to have his stupid 3-D glasses on during the photo." He shrugged, glancing over to the TV. Commercial. Naturally.

"So that's the guy in the pic then." Pic? What pic? He raised an eyebrow suspiciously, before Dirk pointed over to his phone on the coffee table. Karkat didn't have any pictures of Captor, he got rid of them years ago.

He closed his laptop quickly, setting it next to them as he grabbed his phone. There were quite a few messages, mostly from Eridan, and even a few from Dirk before he realized he forgot it here. Plus one photo text sent from John. Curiosity killed the cat, but he sent little to no time opening the message titles 'hey karkat! still haven't decided if i should send this to captor. should i? ;B'

The date on the picture was last month, when they moved John into his new place, in the hall, actually. Two people against a wall, lips locked with a bright pink blush dancing across the shorter, pale guy's…

He blushed a bright cherry red, staring down at the picture. "Holy fucking shit…"

* * *

**End of act two. Hehehehehe. Yes, evil grins aplenty…**

**Anyway, so, next chapter's gonna probably have some big reveals, so, yeah. Maybe even seeing a new character next chapter, too. So that'll be exciting!**

**Some info about the beginning of the chapter, Sollux's lisp is bad in the morning, mostly because he's tired. So he tries to avoid talking as much as he can, and gets up to grab coffee as soon as possible, but with a cutie like KK in bed next to him, he wouldn't dare get up for anything. Karkat's a really heavy sleeper, but he typically wakes up on his own without any trouble. Like most things he likes to have his sleeping schedule under control, so he spends weeks making sure he naturally wakes up at the same time. (Like, he sets an alarm until he can wake up on his own then, if that makes any sense.)**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	14. Prince of heart

**Okay, I will admit, Dirk's character is very very very very very very VERY out of character in this story. Honestly, I mixed some quirks between him and Bro into this whole personality, and I can fully admit that his character in this is shallow. He's more of a cameo character, really. So, yeah… Ironically though, even knowing that, I may start shipping DirkKat or BroKat eventually, just because of this story… It's kind of a reason why I started shipping DaveKat red, so… Yeah. Ehehehe. Anyway, I just wanted to clearly point that out right now. Using Dirk was a last-minute decision. I thought of that character being Gamzee, but that's a whole side-story I might have to add in. ANYWAY yeah, there's my little disclaimer. Sorry if any Dirk fans get mad from this story, I really enjoy learning more about his actual personality, so… yeah.**

**Okay. On to the story!**

* * *

**Act three: Operation Battlefield.**

* * *

"So, why do you want to know about this so much, anyway?" Sollux messed around with his straw as his new little acquaintance finally received his colorful martini, complete with a bright pink umbrella. He hadn't expected Dirk to be so… burly, really. Sure he saw him for a little bit when Sollux walked in on them making out and leaving the bar together a week ago, but he wasn't exactly paying attention then. The man overshadowed Sollux, in height and everything, a nicely toned chest to show off in his plain white polo. The pumpkin orange hat was something he didn't expect though. (The shades, not so much. It's a Strider thing, after all.)

Sollux took a tiny sip of his beer before answering. "He'th my best friend, and I've never even heard of this Trent guy." He shrugged. Dirk didn't seem to accept that as an answer, though. He took a drawn-out sip of his martini before staring back at him, one eyebrow raised incredulously. "Okay, him being amazingly attractive is also a big part about it."

He shook his head, sitting back in his booth. "Vantas being amazing attractive is a moot point, man. Like, the point was moot before you even met the man." He shrugged it off though. "So what, you just want him for that? I mean, it's amazing obvious that you do want him." Even Karkat knew that.

"No, no. Not like that…" Sollux took a sip before continuing. "I mean yeah, I want him, but it's more than jutht sex. We've been friends for years. I really want a relationship with him. KK thaid no to the relationship, and as long as we're still friends, I'm alright, it's just… I really want more than that, and it hurts."

Dirk listened on, and seemed to be spacing out when Sollux stopped talking. At least five minutes passed before responding. "You're in love with him. And you've noticed how much he wants you back. That's why you're going behind his back to find out why he hasn't accepted it yet. Is that it?"

Amazing… Sollux instantly fell silent. This guy already knew everything, and they've known each other on a personal note for, what, an hour by now? He told him about that one guy, Trent Coolidge, and that he technically considers himself KK's boyfriend behind closed doors and everything, but…

"Hit the nail on the head, hmm?" That shit-eating grin came back. He's good at that. "So if I betrayed his trust like this, what would you do?" Another sip. "Would you just march right up to him, admit to this secret meeting, and just bullshit your way into his pants with some romantic words and shit?" Sollux scowled over to him, but he understood what he was trying to ask at least. It's such a pathetic tactic, finding out the reason from someone else and just walk up to him, promising to not do the things he was told about. It's an invasion of privacy, this whole meeting, but there's another issue.

He's protecting KK. He's extremely protective, going to huge lengths to ensure that he's alright, and that KK's happy. Stress relief, chasing away people that might help him, placing that boyfriend façade right in the middle of everything… Why was he doing it, though? Sollux let out a sigh, shaking his head. "No, that'th flaky."

"KK… _Karkat_ and I met almost ten years ago. Online, you know? I was coming to grips with my potential (now medicated) bipolar disorder, and I asked about it on a forum one day. He was the very first response. 'YOU IDIOT. OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. MAYBE IF YOU JUST PULLED THE STUBBORN SPIKED DILDO OUT OF YOUR ASS YOU WOULD SEE THAT.'" Sollux snickered, taking a break for a sip before spilling his heart out to some semi-stranger. "Or something like that. Anyway, I thought he was a troll, so I just ignored him, but he sent messages and shit, telling me not to ignore what he said. I asked him why the fuck he cared so much but he didn't answer. So I went to a therapist."

"Turns out he was right, obviously. I thanked him and I thought he'd leave me the fuck alone, but carcinoGeneticist always keeps track of idiots he meets. So we thtarted chatting. My first girlfriend left me around that time, almost killed herself, and he was still there. We were—are- best friends, finally meeting in real life, and agreeing to be roommates during college." He glanced over to Dirk, who was still listening quietly. Like he was judging whether or not his _boyfriend_ would be alright with this guy he barely knew. "It was a bad choice on my part. I was going through a very different kind of relationship with another girl. And unfortunately, it almost ruined our friendship for good."

"I know what happened already, he told me about that shit already." Well that saved an explanation. Good. "So, you reconciled, and suddenly you're bi or something and you really want him. Is that it?"

"Pansexual actually, but that'th beside the point. I was discovering all of this sexuality shit during college, and it eventually ruined my relationship with another ex. Same one we met up with at the beach, actually, but that's beside the point really. To put it simply, I got my betht friend back. Things have been pretty cool, actually. The relationship idea was something really loose until he kissed me a couple of months ago." Sollux shrugged, chugging the rest of his beer. "What can I thay? I fell in love with him…"

Sollux checked the time for the fifth time that hour, seeing if he had any messages on his phone. Anything to give this intrusive conversation a tiny break. He ordered another beer and sat back as Dirk silently absorbed all of the info he just laid out in front of him. They sat there for almost an hour, drinking some more and enjoying some small-talk again. He learned a little more about Strider. He's Dave's older brother, served his time in the military right after highschool and came back with a pretty bad leg back injury that's all but healed up by now.

He's an expert mechanic, disability or not. Got through college, made sure his little brother was properly cared for and could make a good living for himself, got away with a pretty fulfilling life, regardless. He had a close boyfriend that eventually left him, and got married to a woman he grew up with. Dirk's been sleeping around since then. Eventually he met Karkat on the college campus. When he was selling smuppets for ironic purposes. Eh, Sollux never paid attention to that shit. When he mentioned Karkat though, he didn't go into much details about it yet. So by the time Sollux was on his third beer and fairly buzzed, he finally got back on topic. "So, if I told you the big secret, what would you do?"

Sollux took a little longer than expected to come up with an answer. "Prove to him just how much I would be there for him. Change anything I could to help him get past whatever it is that's holding him back."

"Even change divisions for him, or go work at some other company for him?" Dirk had this teasing smirk on his face. This was yet another test. Some kind of proof that he would need. And even now Sollux could identify it in an instant. With a sly smirk, Sollux placed his beer down, folded his arms, and stared right into the other's shades.

"That's what a fucking wimp would do. A coward not worth his time."

Bingo. They shared a few more sips in silent agreement before Dirk put his glass down for good. He had a really high alcohol tolerance. A lot better than his brother's, at least.

"He's afraid of being hurt. He was seriously hurt when Coolidge came into his life. He started chain smoking until I made him quit, didn't leave my side for weeks, cried for hours when his safe method of comfort tried putting some distance into play… Almost lost his job because of it too, but I managed to get him back on his feet." He adjusted his shades quickly, catching his breath. "He says that it's just people he works with… But it's everyone. I've been the closest thing to a relationship he could handle since that narcissistic bastard tore out his heart like that. A casual sex buddy who refuses to be official with him." Sollux's eyes were as wide as plates at that point. Who did that? Who the fuck hurt Karkat like that? Trent Coolidge…?

"After he broke up with that one guy, the fishy guy, hell he was fine. But another guy he worked with before that asked him out. This guy was a huge tool, thought Karkat was only at the company before because of that other guy, and after one date…" Strider stopped, taking a long swig of his martini. "He expected Vantas to put out, to sleep with him after one horrible date. And when he refused, invited him to work the very next day, lying about how they fucked all night. Told everyone he had grown so close to this well-spun lie of being a hired **slut** for the company." Anger unlike what he had heard before bled from his typically cool tone. "Kitkat wanted to work in the gaming industry, and in front of so many major developers he killed his dream with one stupid lie. Broke his trust without even trying. He ruined Karkat Vantas, and even with all of the work that ex did to prove that things weren't like that, all of the time he dedicated to clearing his name, he was fucking broken on the inside. All because he wouldn't sleep with one idiotic douchebag."

The conversation dropped off again. Dirk was trying to compose himself again. Trying to recollect his cool, if you will. And Sollux was crying. Just a quiet, pained cry. No sobbing or anything, just tears he either didn't notice or didn't care about. Of course he was angry, if that self-control wasn't there he would punch the nearest asshole that tried to speak to them just because of it all. But instead he shed some manly tears and kept a painful grip on his seat.

A few minutes passed before Strider let out a little sigh, readjusted his shades, and shrugged nonchalantly. "So yeah. Now that you know that, you still in love with that needy little ass we both love?" He used the word love so lightly, even though they could both obviously tell that he meant it fully.

"Yes. Thought that was fucking obviouth, Strider."

* * *

Karkat had already gone to bed when Dirk got back. Drunk off his ass, but he was at least sober enough now to pick up his shit. He set an early alarm, earlier than Karkat would be up, at least. He had shit for work he needed to get done. As he made it to bed, he glanced at an open window, the screensaver on his laptop. Moving the mouse lightly, he blinked at the wall of #626262 colored text over trollian.

CG: JOHN EGBERT. JOHN FUCKING EGBERT. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS FUNNY. DO YOU THINK THAT MY HUMILIATION IS FUCKING FUNNY? IT'S ENOUGH TO CATCH A GUY GETTING SOME DRUNKEN SLOPPY MAKEOUTS BUT YOU GOT A GODDAMN PICTURE, AT THAT. A PICTURE.

CG: YOU ARE UNBELEIVABLE, I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT. CONGRADUATIONS, YOU HAVE EARNED THIS HIGHLY ELABORATE, MATURE RESPONSE. SO ENJOY IT, BECAUSE YOU WON'T EVEN LIKE SITTING ONCE YOU'RE THROUGH WITH THIS LITTLE LECTURE.

CG: YEAH, LECTURE. LIKE WE'RE IN SCHOOL, AND YOU'RE THE SEXUALLY FRUSTRATED LIVER SPHINCTER STUCK SITTING HIS ASS DOWN IN A SWEATY GYM LOCKER ROOM LISTENING TO HIS OVERWEIGHT WEIGHTROOM COACH RANT ABOUT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. YEAH, THAT'S WHAT YOU'LL BE GETTING. YOU CAN THANK ME LATER.

CG: ACTUALLY, FUCK YOUR APPRECIATION. ENJOY MY HATRED AND RAGE INSTEAD. I'LL EVEN THROW IN AN INSULT AND SUBTLE MESSAGE JUUUUST BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT.

CG: FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH. GO DIE IN A PIT OF YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S SHIT, YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE.

CG: THIS WAS HER IDEA, WASN'T IT? WHAT DID SHE PLAN FOR THAT PICTURE AND SOLLUX, HM? SOMETHING SCANDALOUS AFOOT? SOME KIND OF BLACKMAIL OF THE WORST KIND?

CG: NO. YOU CAN SHOW THAT FUCKING THING EVERYWHERE, DOES IT LOOK LIKE *I* CARE?

CG: …

CG: NO, ACTUALLY, DON'T *EVEN* SHOW THAT PICTURE. TO ANYONE. DELETE IT, DAMNIT!

CG: PLEASE DON'T SHOW THIS TO CAPTOR… I WON'T HEAR THE END OF IT.

CG: WE'RE FRIENDS. SO DON'T EVEN DO IT. JUST DON'T, MAN.

CG: FUCK, WE WILL CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION LATER. *DON'T* SHOW THAT PICTURE TO SOLLUX.

CG: PLEASE.

* * *

**Whoo! There's not much to say, besides I kind of suck at KK insults sometimes. I'm trying my best though. Besides, this was a serious chapter, and I needed to end it on a lighter note anyway.**

**So yeah, this was fun, serious plot reveals, Sollux crying manly tears, a Strider losing his cool over his writer making him really out of character. (Sorry about that again. :c ) Anyway, we'll have something cute and light-hearted for the next chapter, maybe, don't worry. Anyway, love you guys. –Kisses.- By the way, double chapter update day, and I didn't even realize it until right now. (right now referring to me making final edits on this chapter.) So... yeah. Sorry for not updating as often. When you're writing a lot of stuff, sometimes you plan stories way in advance and you keep having these great idea about the future chapters. And when it finally gets to those chapters you get really excited and it gets hard to write it to fit your excitement. -shrugs.-**

**Sorry, lots of OOC stuff today, omg! Anywho, bye guys, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.  
**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	15. Cool, light touches

He should have just stayed in bed. Waking up alone really sucks, and he can totally understand why Strider hates it so much. Okay, let's just not talk about him right now. Karkat woke up to an empty bed, a little note mentioning some delivery breakfast thing, and all of Dirk's things gone. Once again he's gone and who knows when he'll show up again. He should have stayed at least one more day, but to be honest he made a mess of everything in the suite. So yeah, fuck that guy. A few weeks pass with nothing substantial happening, besides maybe Sollux being a little more distant than usual. Karkat was going to ask, but he's going shopping with him tomorrow, so whatever.

Or at least he _was_ going shopping with him. Right now wasn't a good time to get sick, damnit! Not just some minor cold or anything, Karkat managed to catch a really nasty bug going around the office, he's been stuck in bed for a few days now. Sure, he's getting better, but not being able to come in to work really puts a damper on things today. Damn weekends not taking long enough. He's still bed-ridden and his cell is going to relish in the relaxation day as his temporary manager takes over for the day, or however long it was going to take to get better.

Karkat kept himself busy, lying on the couch and watching movies curled in a warm blanket. All the while he was graced by some many calls from work. Even Sollux tried to call once, but the cancer's voice was way too scratchy to even be considered audible. By the time their normal shift had ended Karkat was asleep again, 50 First Dates playing in the background. He usually **never** falls asleep when there's a movie playing, but he was just too tired. At least he was getting better, his 102 fever went down since this morning, and all the sleeping distracted him from his pounding head.

He awoke to long fingers running through his messy hair, cool skin running along his cheeks. It couldn't possibly be Dirk, he hasn't even called since he left. And Eridan obviously wasn't the one petting him like this, he has stubby blunt fingers, plus he isn't one to cut his nails, and whoever this was has finely cut nails.

No, he finally stirred awake to stare into heterochomatic bluebrown eyes, his work associate leaning over him and smiling softly. Karkat mumbled something quietly before swatting his hands away half-assedly. Sollux let out a light chuckle, walking off to his kitchen quietly. And he returned with something that smelled really good, a big bowl of soup. "Sit up."

He complained, sitting up enough to eat properly. As Sollux went to go get some water or something, he left the bowl of soup in his lap… and a fork. "Hey idiot. Who the fuck eats soup with a damn fork?"

"Deal with it. You have, like, no clean spoons. Besides, it'll help pick up the noodles at least, right?" Sollux was back in his kitchen, doing the dishes, surprisingly.

"Get me some chopsticks then." Karkat ordered, crossing his arm. Sollux gave him a fairly incredulous look, but since the little sickie demands it, fine.

They didn't talk much until lunch (or… dinner? Linner? Whatever.) was through. Karkat still hadn't asked why the asshole bothered stopping by, but who cares. Even if he was coughing occasionally, having medicine shoved down his throat, and Sollux constantly snickering at how he sounds like a dying frog, it was kind of nice. Before he knew it, they were watching movies quietly, Karkat's head resting on a pillow in Sollux's lap. (his legs are seriously skinny, and bony and shit. Not comfortable in the slightest.) It was the first time in days that Karkat actually felt good; with long fingers massaging at his scalp, a full stomach. He fell asleep easily that night, still on his lap as Sollux decided to watch that stupid Star Trek movie.

Karkat woke up in the middle of the night, thanks to a pretty horrible cough. He was in bed again, covered in his comforter and wrapped up in pale arms. Sollux must have taken him to bed after his movies, and figured it was a good opportunity to sneak in another night of sharing a bed. Asshole. Not like he was going to wake him up or anything, the coughing was already bad enough. He curled into the arms holding him, pressing his face against his chest. If Sollux woke up and saw this he would NEVER live it down. Mister Not-Dating-You cuddling against his chest. Nope, he was going to blame it on his cold, damnit. Because fuck you, that's why.

He fell back asleep his fever was down when he finally decided to wake up again. Not to mention that Sollux was up, typing on his laptop with Karkat's arms wrapped around his waist. He seemed comfy, but this was close enough. Once he had enough sense to, he turned around again, crossing his arms with a huffy sigh. And just as expected, Sollux's chuckling filled his ears. Damn that sound. Damn the cool fingers teasing him by running along his hair again.

And most of all, damn these feelings that were just screaming at him now.

* * *

"Я просто не знаю, какого черта делать иногда, мама. Это всегда это постоянная борьба, действительно ли я на самом деле есть шары, чтобы рискнуть, или ..." (I just don't know what the fuck to do sometimes, mother. It's always this constant battle of whether or not I actually have the balls to take a chance, or...) Another week had passed and by now that cold was ancient history. Karkat was once again at home alone, wrapped up in a blanket and talking with his mother, something he tried to do more often. She's the one he came out of the closet to first, and the one who held him when his first boyfriend dumped him, and the one who convinced their completely homophobic uncle to back the fuck off and accept his family for who they are.

She really wanted him to visit their new house soon, and apparently she, very close to menopause, was pregnant! It's seriously a wonder how she did it, but Karkat was going to have a little sister (according to the recent ultrasound. It's still a major toss-up though.) Growing up as an only child, it's interesting, really. They've already picked out names and such, mother just loved taking care of her son, and even at her age she wants to raise another child. Father is indifferent about it though. "Мой милый ребенок, наступает момент, когда вам просто необходимо, чтобы вещи. Он звучит как симпатичный молодой человек, и вы очень близки с ним уже, так почему бы и нет?" (My darling child, there comes a time when you just need to let things happen. He sounds like a nice young man and you're very close with him already, so why not?)

He hadn't told her that this was the guy from college, yet. She'd probably flip her lid if she actually remembered. Which he doubted she did at her age. He was getting another call, Sollux bugging him again. Probably wanting to get some dinner together or something. He just responded via Trollian.

I'M ON THE PHONE RIGHT NOW. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?

diinner. the two of u2 riight now.

"Мама ты не понимаешь вообще, не так ли? Конечно, я хочу, и я знаю, что он не будет мне больно, но это сложнее." (Mama you don't understand at all, do you? Sure, I want to, and I know he wouldn't hurt me, but it's more complicated than that.) Karkat sighed, his mother going off on a tangent, ranting about how much of a wuss her son can be sometimes, about how he was this close to being a girl. Even bringing up how manly he still _doesn't_ look in the recent pictures he sent her. Then the rambling just went on and on and she asked her how he felt for this guy. And why it was so important to not keep living in the past and shit. That's nice and all, but the past repeats itself, and who know's how far he'll fall when it happens again. It all this positive bullshit that pulls people away from the fact that he…

He…

That he's falling for that asshole and is too much of a wuss to do anything about it. Just like dear Mama was/is saying. Not to mention he's his work associate, and if that's really any reason, it's a horrible one. But honestly he doesn't care at this point. Anything to hold on to and prevent himself from getting hurt will work. So there. He finally got away from the phone with Sollux waiting at the door. Karkat, of course, just took a shower, so he let Sollux stand in the hall as he got changed. Sollux had this stupid red and blue jacket on, apparently his new thing aside from the bee clothes. Sollux mentioned going to see a movie together, which Karkat agreed to. It's the new Batman movie, so why not?

Once he opened the door, a bunch of red roses met with his fucking face. Sollux was right there, grinning his ass off and holding some box of chocolates or something. What the fuck was all this about…? "The hell, Captor?"

"Thethe aren't from me, they were just at your door. Says they're from your little _boyfriend_." Well at least it's that's a relief… Sollux's grin faded almost as quickly as Karkat's. To someone truly and wholly loved, and for someone who just got a shitload of roses and shit, he didn't seem at all pleased. There's a note with bright orange writing inside the bouquet, why didn't he notice that before?

'Sorry man I'm gonna see how things work out with someone else. Sorry to break up with you in such a stupid way but hey, we'll still be friends. –Strider.'

Eyes widening, his gaze shot back to KK's, expecting some kind of intense emotion, all his got was a blank, almost bored glance. Karkat's good at hiding his emotions, isn't he? Or maybe he didn't really get what all this shit means? "Uh… KK?" He almost seems surprised at him being there, but a few moments pass and he shakes it off, bringing in the roses and everything else. He doesn't even say anything, pulling him to the restaurant of his choosing. Sollux tried to talk to him about it, but he wouldn't respond to anything until you two were seated.

"God, shut the fuck up already." He mumbled, resting his head in his hands. "It's not like it's anything new. He gets a boyfriend, and somehow he assumes that it bothers me or something." The only reason it really bothered Karkat was because he has no emotional attachment to the whole boyfriend title. As for his emotional attachment to Strider… well. Who knows? "So I got 'dumped' or whatever. Like I said, we weren't in a relationship to begin with."

Sollux let out a sigh, messing around with his straw. He could tell that Karkat was more or less shaken up by it, not outwardly depressed. His hopeful optimistic side told him it was because of him. Of course, the hopeful optimistic side is also the dreadful pessimistic side, too, and that side is saying that he's just hiding a now broken heart.

Sometimes he just need to tell himself to stop thinking.

* * *

Coming home from their movie, Karkat was still munching on popcorn as Sollux went on and on about how the Joker had no involvement in the movie. As the stopped by to drop Karkat off at his suite, something Sollux still does even if it bugs the fuck out of his boss. The conversation, and the movie, falls back into a quiet collective thought. Karkat says the usual goodbye shit at the door, and as usual Sollux is silent. It's different today though, he's staring down at him, leaning over the door to be at eye level with Karkat. Sollux leaned in for a goodnight kiss, something he usually only attempts when he's drunk

Karkat doesn't push him away.

* * *

**D'Awwwww!**

**Yes, lots of cuddles this chapter. Karkat kind of needed it, kind of... But KK, is that your stubbornness finally fading away?**

**… Nah! Hehehehe.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	16. Countdown

**Oh my god guys, sorry, I've been putting off these updates way more than I should! But I'm doing a lot of future planning, and these next few chapters are going to be really exciting. So I'll be focused on writing them. Hopefully.**

* * *

"Hey, uh, Karkat? Could I ask you for some advice?"

A few days before operation Battlefield, and with the final additions to the recent patch update sent in, everyone was relaxing once again. The work cycle is once again resetting itself, and everyone in the cell has been talking about some kind of celebration. After the operation, of course, but it was something. Karkat was just finalizing everything and sending a drawn-out congratulations message to the terminals. Tavros came in to work the past few days completely distracted. It's something that Karkat would have asked about, seeing as his work ethic is usually so stable, but with the patch needing his undivided attention, he lost track of it all.

He's in his wheelchair once again, he hasn't left it all day. He seems skittish, too. Overly nervous. Now was a good time, actually, with the shift ending. "As your superior, that's my responsibility, Nitram. But I have noticed that you've been anxious lately. What did you need advice on?" He shifted in his chair again, before just spitting it out.

"M-my boyfriend's in rehab." So he definitely wasn't expecting that one. Tavros had told him about being bisexual quite a while ago, but he hadn't heard a damn thing about his mysterious boyfriend, aside from the small fact that they lived together. It's wasn't his business. Not his problem, but if this was distressing his intern so much, then perhaps he should at least offer some amount of support.

He cleared his throat lightly before responding. "I see. Well, tell me about it, how long has he been in rehab?"

"About three days. He got caught and this is keeping him out of jail…" Drugs, his boyfriend has a drug problem, hm? What kind of drug problem, though. "A-and he didn't tell me until this morning, too. He said he didn't want me to worry." That seemed to raise a bigger red flag to him than anything else. A healthy relationship needs that kind of communication. (Yeah, guess who's fucking talking.) At any rate, he keeps talking. "He'll be gone for the next two or three weeks, and that's pretty much the only thing he told me." Another red flag. Why wouldn't he tell him where he was, or what he was there for. Or maybe he did and Karkat's just assuming shit. "I don't know whether or not to make him tell me more…"

Well at least that advice wouldn't be too difficult. Karkat takes a quiet sip of cold coffee to gather his thoughts before opening his damn trap. "At the most, you should ask him about it. Making someone tell you why you're in rehab isn't exactly the smartest idea. If he doesn't want to tell you more about it, ask him why." Karkat cleared his throat again, before adding. "Don't pressure him about it though. It's information you need, but he might get the wrong message if you're insistent."

He spent some time going over ways to ask, but didn't ask about any specific information. That was all Tavros' business. All he asked for was your advice. He's stuck in mid-rant when someone knocks of the office door. The window blinds are up, so that's usually a sign that it's fine to come in. Yet no one seems to remember that one little fact. One more thing that annoys the fuck out of their boss. Sollux knocks again before just walking in, getting the typical glare. "Hey."

"What?" He sounds a little more annoyed than he wanted to, but it gets the right response, that mild amused glance he swears he could see through the 3d glasses. "I'm fucking busy, if you haven't noticed already."

"Jutht wanted to say that I'm going drinking with Dave, tho we won't be able to have dinner together, that's all." Strider. He's already gotten over the fact that Dave and his ex (fuck, okay, he wasn't dating him, alright? So that name is just because technically he dumped him.) are related. They aren't exactly similar in any respect, but he hasn't really spoken to Dave motherfucking Strider, or seen enough of him to make any connections.

Naturally, Karkat scowled at him for doing something as pointless as telling him. Like Sollux really needed to tell him this shit. Seriously. And he was about to rant about it, but with a tall asshole leaning over his desk to kiss him goodbye stopped him dead in his tracks. He could already tell that Tav's cheeks were brighter than him on a bad day in the sun, and with a snicker, Sollux left the two in a stunned silence. Just in time to dodge a wide-eyed Karkat throwing the nearest thing at him, this happened to be his nicest pen.

What the literally flying _fuck_?! He was going to start rumors pulling shit like that! Sputtering out an aggravated curse, his calm demeanor fading into a frozen pile of curses and bright red cheeks until Tavros finally had the gall to speak up. "Uhh… Wow, sir. I had no clue you two were…"

"We. Fucking. Aren't." Karkat hissed, inciting a frightened little squeak from the other man.

* * *

"So, how's that plan comin' along, Captor?" Sollux chugged his third beer of the night, fully intending to get shit-faced drunk tonight. And of course he had company. His drinking buddy, Dave Strider in the flesh. It was, naturally, Dave's turn to buy the drinks, but Captor's a charitable man. Also, kind of a pushover for hot blonde guys who know a thing or two about playing it cool. "Vantas falling into your arms with one sweep of the long arms of yours, yet?"

"Nah." He said as he placed an order for more beer. "He doesn't push me away when I kiss him, though. Just freezes." Sollux seemed seriously proud of that little victory. It was progress. Not like the progress he would gain after this next week, but it was something. "After testing, things will be different, though."

Dave let out a small laugh, sipping away at his appletini. He said it was for ironic purposes, but he just can't resist the delicious girly drink. He's commented about how cosmopolitans are pretty goddamn amazing, too. Sollux of course had no interest whatsoever in his stupid obsession with situational humor. It's something he doesn't care about enough to appreciate. "You know, if things don't work out my bro's probably gonna go right back to him." Strider was staring at the unused karaoke machine in slight interest, but Sollux wouldn't be having any of that.

A few girls were throwing them these really promiscuous stares, and honestly looking at their glances made him cringe. One night stands weren't exactly his thing. Not recently, anyway. "I know. And I'm pretty sure it's jutht going to be thomething casual again. KK needth an actual relationship, though. Thomething real."

Dave just nodded, ordering another overly-girly drink. He earned a few glances at his choice of alcohol, but that blank state look was what brought the effect home. No one questioned it at all; his facial features and his cool façade blocked any sense of a confused or negative response. Sollux didn't know whether to call him a genius or an idiot. "Well, I did my part, man. All we need now is to drink to the future results."

"Bottomth up."

* * *

He set the alarm on his phone three hours early. Karkat needed to be awake this morning. Operation Battlefield requires his full attention.

The testing parameters have already been set. Each company cell has one mainframe they have to protect, and one target mainframe to attack. Everything is decided behind closed doors, so the one's involved with such decisions are not involved. In addition, each company has a secretive super-mainframe, which is a huge bonus to their "scores." No one knows which cells will have spies, how many there are, or what their plans are. Each year is different after all.

It's a game. It's a very immature game, but for some reason is a lot of worker's favorite game. The CEO, in fact, looks forward to the hacking wars. Karkat's cell was one of lesser mainframes, not exactly an exciting thing to watch. Last time his cell was in charge of taking down one of the major ones. It's a nice change, anyway.

Pulling on his sweatervest, Karkat let out a sigh and went to pour his second cup of coffee. While illegal actions are completely out of the picture, he couldn't trust that his coffee might be compromised. He was paranoid on these days. A few years ago one of his bosses had sleeping pills snuck into their food. Not gonna happen again. Karkat had his own lunch prepared, only the finest of home-cooked meals. A sandwich.

He arrived at work two hours earlier than usual, setting up every computer, setting up his plans, and watching as everyone arrived for work. No one was acting suspicious yet, but the testing period starts at the morning shift, ending at five.

There's **no** telling when the attacking team will be starting. One year a few cells didn't even attempt anything until the last hour, just letting the tension wind Derse up in knots. Karkat wasn't a part of such a ridiculous plan, though. His team once again dominated in their own way. It was such a simple year for them, actually.

While he watched everyone's screens closely, he wrote out his own instructions right up until the launch time for the planning. Their server wasn't particularly important in that sense, but the one that they were attacking definitely was. Karkat had already wrote out their strategy. At each hour one computer will begin to hack through, and each attempt will only last five to ten minutes. At around three o'clock, the full-ranged offensive will begin, and sweep the entire system. Everyone's schedules were pre-determined, and the attack is expected to not fail for any reason. It also gives the team time to search for the "trigger" server, which will be well hidden.

All Karkat had to do was watch out for any spies, and their team would bring a satisfactory result while still defending their server. It should be a simple year. Laying back against his chair, he waited for eight AM to roll by.

"Hey KK."

He glanced up, seeing Sollux at the door, just happily beaming down at him. Huh, he must enjoy these kinds of activities. Sollux wore that stupid blue-red jacket today, his glasses must still be at his computer, though. As he shrugged off his little greeting he noticed something a little strange. Sollux usually looked extremely tired in the morning. He really isn't a morning person, but today he's fully awake. "Hey man. The fuck are you doing here? Battlefield starts in five."

Sollux nodded, going to sit down in the nearby chair. "I doubt they'll attack at the firtht minute, man. That would be way too thimple." He was right. But anything simple could also be a strategy. You have to think about the first five hundred steps before you take the first one. That's just how the world works. "Hey, but we should talk about thome thingth later, alright?"

Karkat stared at him for a few moments. He's alert, but relaxed as all hell. He's usually way too tense and pissy in the morning. This is definitely a weird change. And it's suspicious. "'Some things?' The only thing you want to talk about in the morning is _coffee_." Karkat crossed his arms, staring at him. Sollux, ever the calm one, wasn't even bothered by it.

"Nah. Thethe little gameth are fucking hilariouth. Expert programmerth failing at hacking attempth." He snickered, playing with his hair a little. "And your thrategy thoundth like fun, too. Methhing with 'em for fun. Though you should probably plan an extra hour for the all-outs. It might be more effective."

He was really being suspicious, if he's the spy then… oh _fuck_ no. He's the best programmer in their cell, who in their right mind would use him? That kind of backward-ass strategy is for the weak-willed. For the idiots who don't understand what they're getting themselves into. It's not even a possibility, he must just really like these testing periods…

If he's the spy everyone's screwed. Shit. _Shit! _

* * *

**Hmmm. Someone's acting suspicious. Just what is Sollux planning? Ehehehe.**

**DawnAtSky  
**


	17. In which Karkat freaks the fuck out

**If you don't get what the chapter title means, you will eventually. It will be so not amazing at all.**

**PLEASE FORGIVE ME in advanced. I make a really,_ really_ bad joke near the end of the chapter. I'm sooo sorry!**

* * *

Fast forward three hours. Nothing's happened yet, no attacks, no traces, nothing. Sollux left right when things started, leaving Karkat to _not _calm down at all. That devious grin of his was enough to bring chills down his spine. He was definitely suspicious of Sollux, that's a given. But seriously, what the fuck was with his overly cheery attitude today? It pissed Karkat off, it totally messed with his head.

Tavros has the day off, so Roxy took care of most of their duties for the day, and she did a good job, so far. Even if Karkat hadn't asked for it she brought him his cup of coffee, and worked on a company laptop to keep watch over the activities, just like everyone else. She wanted to go into mainframe security, a much faster-paced work environment than this, so he typically gives her the same tasks as the other workers. She's pretty damn reliable, actually.

Also, she's drunk. Karkat had seen her drunk at work before, and she swears up and down that her drunk codes work so much better than her sober ones. She's another suspect. But the coffee she brought smelled the same, at least. He asked her for a bottle of water, too, and she returned with that without any difficulty. She's strangely efficient while under the influence, unlike him. She probably doesn't just make out with the nearest guy when she's shitfaced drunk like, well, him.

God, he still has that picture. He managed to convince John not to send it to Sollux, as far as he knew, but he still couldn't bring himself to delete it. It was a reminder to not let his guard down again. Maybe he should delete it, it's not exactly helping. Every single thought in his mind just slows when the smell of honey passes by. (He swears Sollux put on some honey-scented cologne or something, just to distract him. He totally would, too.)

Letting out a sigh, Karkat typed another reminder to everyone's computers. Third time this hour he has done it. Why was this project so boring all of a sudden? Having nothing to do gives his mind the time to wander. A certain buzzing in his skull always seems to float back in, and it drives him up a wall. "Hey, Karka-Karkt… Boss."

"What?" He glanced up to her typing on her terminal, it looks like she caught something. "Tracers?" Oh thank god they're starting. Karkat went right to work, alerting everyone of the trace. He could see everyone's monitors springing to life, working to track everything down and to defend their server. Good, he can stop being so aggravated and bored. "Good work, Lalonde. I need you to patrol the floor. Give me a sharp alert if you spot _anything_ out of place."

"Aye-aye, sir!" She closed the laptop and saluted before hobbling out of the door. Like a graceful swan, Roxy, ladies and gentleman! Come to think of it, her internship isn't for very long, was it? She's a great addition to the team, but she's probably got another job all lined up for her. At least Tavros' will still be here for the next few months.

With everyone working simultaneously, the threat died down. They'll be back. Karkat went to check on the status of their server while he could only assume everyone is calming down. 0% leak. Good. Roxy came back with nothing to report, but he sent her on her way to watch everyone. So she did just that.

And with that the next few hours were completely boring. Not a touch of any sort of threat. Multiple others stopped by to discuss their attacks. We were definitely keeping them on their toes this this year. Sollux's advice from before seemed like a good idea, but there was still this unmistakable suspicion he held over the man. Karkat wanted to go and check up on him, find some way to pin the suspicion to a definite, but he couldn't. Being in control of the other monitors means that any spy would go directly after him. Taking down their defense would be that easy. Gulping down another big drink of water, Karkat made another routine message and kept up his search for the trigger. Where was that fucking thing? Derse _needed_ to win this year!

Karkat's left once again to his own thoughts, and even they knew how stupid and immature he was being right now. _Okay, calm down Karkat. You're getting a little too excited today, aren't you? It's just the tension, and your own worries about Sollux. But he hasn't been doing much yet, his attack's scheduled as the last one before the all-out attack. And that's quite a while from now. _God.

As lunch time strolled by, there still weren't any attacks. Maybe one or two unknown sources poking around, but they were shut down instantaneously. Karkat was offered a nice meal brought to his office, but he rejected it, ordered people to go back to work as he munched on his rather pathetic sandwich.

As another silent hour passes by he knows for sure how much he's freaking the fuck out. The thought of seeing his best friend's expert coding used against the team drove him insane. He was anxious, and he should really order Sollux to leave, or keep him within eye distance or something, but he just couldn't. He trusted him, and it was ridiculous to think that. So much time has passed with little to no attempts, and with the news of a few cells falling already, Karkat's stress couldn't be higher.

What was _with him_, today? It's like he's expecting Sollux to come around and do something completely crazy, and his pride won't allow him to make mistakes. But he might be making a big one right now, and… Fuck, okay he needs that goddamn coffee.

And now finally it was time for Sollux's attack. It was only supposed to last a few seconds but it would pump up their entry point into the system by so much more. Karkat watched the screen obsessively. Come on, man, do it. Don't be a spy. Don't screw me over with this one. Don't be a gigantic douchelord and… and…

The mega-screen shut off…

Uh…

Hello…?

Karkat spent the next few minutes just staring, wide-eyed. Roxy was trying to get his attention and failing. Why did the monitor shut off? What was happening?

Glancing over to his own terminal, his screen showed a single open trollian message. When did trollian open, and why is Sollux…

twinArmaggedons [TA] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

TA: ehehehe.

TA: hope you're ready for thii2 honey.

twinArmaggedons [TA] has ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

"О боже нет. Нет, нет FUCK!" Oh look at that, Karkat's terminal is completely locked, and his keyboard is as well. WELL. FUCK this computer. That mustard yellow text is taunting him, and he knew it was going to happen all along. He anticipated this, from the moment Sollux's bright and cheery face smiled down on him it was as clear as day. He's a spy, and he was going to completely screw you and your team over. Karkat tried a few times, failing horribly before he shut the terminal off. Shit.

Roxy was at least calmer than him right now, offering to gather everyone's efforts to take care of things. She left her laptop with him, saying that she's going to check up and keep tabs on everyone. Karkat ordered her to have the other interns do the same, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Calm down, it's just a game, man.

He needed to keep Sollux away from the computers! And try to not kill hi-Someone just closed the door. Looking up from his terminal, there was Sollux, grinning, and closing the door silently. Karkat had to really hold back, or he might just kick this jackoff's self-centered, dickmangling ass. "Hey KK." Karkat stood up, walking over to the other as calmly as possible. "Don't even try the door. It'th locked." Locked? Pfft, yeah, right. Karkat didn't believe him, but he swatted his hand away from the handle, going to open the door. Locked, that's ridiculo-it's locked. A little chuckle emmited as Sollux walked back over to his chair, leaning back and staring at the laptop. How the hell did he lock the door?

"W-what the fuck?!" The anger bled out from his tone, leaving something flat and defeated in its place. He was now his subordinate's Captor… (Ugh… **badjokebadjokebadjokebadjoke **.) Goddamnit why was Karkat always right about the bad shit, and never the good? "Okay, how is this fair in any sense of the term?"

"Fuck being fair." Sollux replied, taking a quiet glance to the laptop. "Shouldn't you be launching a counterattack by now, KK?" "Fuck you!" It's just a game, it's just a game… Karkat grabbed a blue expo pen from his desk. Fuck the strategy, fuck the teasing shit. Roxy was trying to call him now, discovering the locked door situation herself.

COMMENCE THE ATTACK. NOW. Writing backwards was difficult, but with a curt nod, Roxy went off to issue orders. You wrote down one more thing before shutting the blinds. ATTEMPTING TO RETURN CONTROL TO MAIN TERMINAL. THE SPY IS HERE, SO JUST SHUT UP AND DO YOUR FUCKING WORK.

With a sigh, he turned back around, glaring at the other. It was some way to pick up the shattered pieces of his pride, and now that they were stuck in the room together, he might as well interrogate him. "Who are the other spies?" Blunt, and to the point. Sollux shrugged, ignoring him. Of course he wasn't going to answer. Karkat pushed him out of the way, checking on the progress. Shit, they're in the system already!

As he went to work beefing up the defenses, Sollux rolled up to the other, wrapping his arms around his waist. He earned the little surprised squeak he received.

"Damn, you really got worked up over this, didn't you?" Sollux let out a laugh, pulling him into his lap. Either he didn't care enough too or was too busy, Karkat just let him do it. If this is what keeps Sollux away from their servers, then whatever. "I mean, you've been stressed all day, but damn KK. It'th jutht a thtupid game."

Karkat was ignoring him, turning on his terminal, and opening programs to regain control of his computer. There is no way any of their programs could have shut it down, it's something Sollux personally wrote. His phone buzzed on the tabletop and he ignored it for just a little bit. Roxy was calling again. Shit.

"What?" He grunted, answering the phone. She gasped loudly before responding.

"Karkat, di' you get ki'napped? I'll save you, man!" She was still fairly drunk. How much did she have this morning? "You 'kay?"

"Yes. I issued orders already. Sollux took out my terminal. I'm getting it back as we speak, but stay with the others. Have there been any more interruptions or spy activity?" He heard Sollux scoff, just pulling him closer and leaning his head back.

"Nope. Totes clear." She laughed just slightly, seeming to type something herself. "We started the attack, server's as good as ours." At least that's one thing to not worry about. Karkat hung up on the girl and went right back to work, clearing code from his own terminal. Sollux, of course, was enjoying himself, finding everything to be an amazing game, the asshole. He blocked it out though, not wanting to waste any of his time on man. But the honey smell was at least distracting enough to annoy the fuck out of him still.

"Who else is fucking up our side?" Karkat asked again, typing furiously on the poor laptop. Sollux shook his head, resting his chin on his head. "Why are you being difficult?"

"You're doing such a shitty job with that KK. I mean, I know your coding skills are pretty bad but this is sad." He's taunting him with soft murmurs, trying to help him relax, even though he's the one that wound him up. Considering that he's insulting his boss at the same time, it really isn't doing very well. Getting a low growl in response, Sollux moved quickly, scooping away his hands a trapping Karkat without a single second to resist. "I might be able to help you out a little, but…"

"But, what? The fuck does that mean, anyway, help me out. Fuck, you caused this mess, why the hell are you even offering any kind of stupid sympathy? What could you possibly do now that would 'help me out a little?'" Karkat was just rambling right now, not even putting any sense of intelligence in his speech at all. And all the while he's telling himself that although he blamed Sollux just now, he should have stopped all of this beforehand.

"Well, we could make a little deal…"

* * *

**Extended chapter title: That chapter in which stress and boredom drives Karkat to freak the fuck out until the shit hits the fan, in which then he's reduced to a defeated puppy with his tail between his legs because he knew it was going to happen and yet he didn't stop it state. Also it includes mild cuddling and lots of aggravated KK. **

**BTW what he says in Russian is Oh god no. No no FUCK. I didn't feel the need to put the translation right next to it, since the dialogue was just so pointless.**

**DawnAtSky**


	18. The spy who screwed me over

**I love you guys. Like, I seriously do! ouo Thank you for all the encouragement, I'm glad everyone likes this story. **

**Someone asked something about a Tumblr tag for this story, and I honestly don't know what they're talking about. I'm still kind of new at tumblr, but if they could send a review, or a PM or even a message on my Tumblr (it's the same url as my screen name.) elaborating on that whole thing that would be happy to give you a better answer than this. **

**I'm really sorry guys. I wrote this, and I really didn't like how it turned out. So I re-wrote it. Like, two times. Hopefully this one isn't too crap-tastic! **

* * *

"Stop me if I'm wrong here, and trust me, I can't be stopped right now, but you're a spy in this little situation. What the hell would I resort to dealing with the _enemy_?" Karkat struggled as much as he could, but he was trapped like a fucking rat. "And don't even start with that whole 'it's just a game' bullshit. It was just a game before you trapped me in my own office with the only working source of fixing this bullshit is a weak-ass little laptop."

Karkat was staring back up at him, that angered glare never once leaving his eyes. Even a trapped rat could bite. Sollux, however, didn't let it bother him at all. "My only role wath to screw over your guy's server and keep you from having control of their terminals, man." He gave a slight chuckle, leaning back and bringing Karkat along with him. Asshole, now he couldn't even reach the keyboard! "But thtill, I think you'll want thith deal."

He sounded so sure of himself. It's something he really, really didn't like. Karkat tried struggling again, flailing his legs in the process. But nothing worked, he was stuck. To make matters even worse, Sollux turned them both around to lean the chair back against the desk. Out of his own minor fear of heights, that immediately ceased his flailing. So he settled with only using his words, to prevent any sudden actions possibly making the chair fall over. "And what makes you think that?"

Sollux just chuckled. "Well, with your therver _very efficiently_ thcrewed, I thought I should at leatht offer thome thort of peace offering. For a price, mind you." Of course. He's toying with you by way of a pity offering. "Tho, what do you thay?"

"It depends on what you're offering." He mumbled, trying to glance up at him. "And what the price is."

"I'm offering thomething you'll really want. And the price… well…" He drew out those last few words just enough to worry Karkat. Not only was he being vague, but he was enjoying every single second of it. The worst part about it was that he oh-so-obviously planned all of this. This isn't some spontaneous 'oh, they chose me to be the spy so why not have fun with it' thing. No, this is like the chocolate fountain of plans, and he already has the skewers of nilla-wafer-and-marshmallow sandwiches prepared. The fucking inside-out smores of sadistic evil plans all set out of the table and ready for dunking.

Why? What was his aim, and why did he take this so far?

It didn't even matter how he _did_ it. This is Sollux Captor, dick incarnate. He found a way. Finally finding enough point to push out some sort of verbal response he sputtered out with a quick "Weeeell…? An answer would be nice, douchelord."

Douchelord. How immature. Surely he could have thought of a better insult than that. Funny part is, he really couldn't at the moment. That freakout he had to suffer through all day left him drained, and with the guy he really wanted to ignore holding him _at __**work **_his concentration was still far on the fritzy corner of 'oh fuck moment' city.

Sollux seemed to be thinking, but he finally chimed back in with a response. Like it was really "I want an entire weekend of your time. Like, full attention and everything. No complaints or questions." Sollux finally let him go, moving to wrap his arms around his waist. What the fuck did that even mean? Karkat was a little too confused to really comprehend it, but whatever he said didn't sound like some overly bad thing. Or even some deal-worthy thing, either. "It would be thith weekend." He was free this weekend, right? Yeah. He was. But this was obviously some trick, right? Why would he plan this entire spy thing to just trap him in his office and ask him to hang out this weekend?

It had to be more than that. Or maybe what he was offering wasn't really that good? It made _no_ sense. "And why exactly would I be doing this? What's really in it for me?" Karkat crossed his arms, still staring up at him. He had this incredulous glance on his face, with one eyebrow quirked up just enough.

"Because you'll like the rethult. I promithe you will KK." Ooooh, a promithe —promise—like that was going to make him agree **any** faster.

"Что за хрень никогда." (What the fuck ever.) It's not like a weekend of hanging out with his closest friend was really some horrible thing. Fuck he didn't really even care at this point. Maybe Sollux would let go of him and stop acting like such an idiot while they were _working_. "Fine. We'll spend the weekend together. Woo fucking whoo. Let go of me already. Working." Surprisingly, Sollux complied completely. He turned the chair back over and on safe ground. Before he sits down, though, he grabs out an expo pen from the drawer.

He handed Karkat the pen and let go of him completely. "Go over to the window, you'll need to write down the code for your thpecial prize." That smug grin never, ever, once left his face. It hasn't left all day, and it sure as hell won't be leaving now. Karkat rolled his eyes, but followed along with his instructions. As he shifted the blinds up, he saw people scrambling about to try and organize themselves.

He had also checked on their server before getting up, and not surprisingly, they were about to get shut down. Well fuck, this year's performance was horrible on his end. Thanks Captor.

Situated at the window, he wrote out the code carefully, having Sollux repeat letters to compensate his lack of skill with writing things backwards.

5222DNYEH2MSNYE2MSPAJJJ413B1 .

Yeah, that made just about as much sense as anything ever. Oh, but look, it's in red, so now the text on his window is in red and blue. How cute. "Sollux what the hell is that going to do it help?"

"Well, thince you did jutht agree to the termth I set up. I could tell you." He gave a thoughtful hum before laughing again. "Call Roxy back. She'll be able to put the code to more use then you can right now." Karkat rolled his eyes, bringing down the blinds before returning to his desk. While he was trying to avoid it, Sollux pulled him into his lap once more. Instead of arguing, Karkat just went to 'claim his prize' or whatever.

Three rings and Roxy picked up, the sound of rushed, loud typing going on in the background. "Uh, y'ssir?" He didn't even get a chance to explain anything, Sollux nabbed the phone before he could respond.

"Hey Rox." Sollux sounded so casual, even with an aggravated bossy crab in his lap. "You thee KK'th window?"

"Yeah, kinda. Why?"

"KK found the ID code to the trigger Server. Report it to the proctors ath thoon ath you can, kay?" Karkat's jaw dropped. The triggr server? Why would he think that's the- no WAY!

Karkat quickly went to check out the code, turns out it was one he had been eyeing for hours, one right under his nose. Oh god… Sollux started up some conversation about the project, from what Karkat assumed. In the meantime, he went to check out the server. It shut him out immediately. **Yep**. That was definitely it. Hooooly shit.

Okay. So that was something he would really like. Now what would he have to get through in exchange for that, anyway? By the time Sollux got off the phone with Roxy, their server shut down completely. As if it were all specifically timed. Hell, maybe it was all timed, and Captor was the main puppeteer in all of this.

The little laptop crashed in a matter of minutes, and just like that, their involvement in operation Battlefield was over. But with the presentation of that trigger key Sollux spelled out, they would still receive some credit. Some was better than nothing.

Karkat needed a fucking nap after that overemotional turnpike. And maybe some

* * *

Looking over the preliminary results, Karkat didn't have any room to complain. He received the credit for finding the trigger server first, which was just enough to make the overall results of the competition difficult to predict. It would take at least a few days for everything to process, so the weekend could be free of worries and complicati- oh god.

Right. He agreed to spend all of the weekend with Sollux. Great.

Just like he really wanted to, he spent almost all of that and the next day in bed. So much to sleep off it was crazy. But now that things have calmed down and he's wide awake he just had to worry about their apparent agreement to hang out. Why did he do all of that for such a stupid exchange. Why did he even try going that far, anyway. Checking his text messages, he avoided any and all things even remotely related to Captor and read a few messages from Roxy. Their cell was correctly credited for locating the trigger server, and earning them just enough point to tide over their melodramatic loss.

Unlike other servers, the trigger is a crucial key to the company's mainframe, and heavily guarded. They change the ID every few weeks, for its protection, and only finding it is enough to count for the exorcise. Somehow Sollux knew where it was though. He knew the ID code by heart.

Why.

He was trapped in his thoughts all night, eventually drifting off to sleep every so often. A lot of things floated in and out of his mind, like what Sollux was planning for the weekend. Did he just want to hang out, or… No, It would be best not to think about it, wouldn't it? Karkat would find out eventually, and he'd have to deal with it, too.

His cellphone woke him up at approximately 5:30 AM with some douchebag calling him. What the fuck? Who the hell would call him 5 in the goddamn morning?

Sollux. Of course. It is Saturday after all. God, the sun hasn't even risen yet or anything. Answering the phone, he gave a low grunt greet his friend. "Hah, KK wake up man. I'm at your door." At your door? Like right outside his front door at a time like this? Oh my god…

"Seriously Soll'x? M'too _tired_."

"Uh-uh-uh! No complaintth. Get up." He sounded so awake it was disturbing. Like, how could he do this to you again, weirding you out like this and all. He let out an annoyed groan and pushed himself out of bed, straight to the door. Unlike how he sounded, Sollux was a fucking mess himself. A mess in his pajamas, no less. "Morning."

He had two large mochas in his hands. Well at least he was prepared. Handing one off to his boss, he took a quick glance at the shorter man's attire. Karkat slept in his clothes by accident, and his hair was even worse than Sollux's. They took some time just standing there while Karkat indulged himself with sugary coffee treatment.

"Tho. I need you to get into thome clean clotheth and brush your hair. You can shower later if you need to but we don't have the time for that now." Karkat shrugged, like he was just going to be complaint, but fuck that. Why couldn't he shower or anything. He tried to ask, and was shooed away to change. "Come on, man. We need to thtart our date off right."

… What?

* * *

**HAHAHA sneaky **_**sneaky**_**! **

**DawnAtSky**


	19. Would have sucked if it rained

**OMG an update woot! Sorry guys, I took a short writing hiatus due to the fact that my experience with dating is extremely tiny and insignificant. Anyway, enjoy.**

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"Nah, wear the other oneth. Thothe looked really nice."

Karkat growled ever-so-slightly, wishing he had never bought these black skinny jeans. They are comfortable (eventually) but walking around with Sollux bugging him to wear all this weird shit was way more obnoxious than you would expect. The two really didn't talk much as six AM rolled up to them. Sollux wouldn't let him start up any kind of conversation anyway.

Date… He said this was a date. After all of the refusals, he managed the impossible and "convinced" Karkat to go through with this. So they sat there, staring out of the suite windows, drinking coffee and watching the sun rise. He had to admit, it was comforting. Watching black and blue fade to a warmer, reassuring pinkorange mix. Karkat wasn't one for bullshit like this, but it was at least nice.

They spent about an hour or so just sitting there, watching the colors skid across the sky, and Sollux's stupid glasses. By the time they both emptied their mochas (which really didn't leave them fully awake) the sun had risen. Sollux said he would get dressed before they left, but he had to pick out the perfect outfit for Karkat.

So he was stuck wearing those stupid-ass grey skinny jeans, and an old band t-shirt he chose to cover up with a black sweater he had lying around. Sollux, unfortunately, made him wear a pair of horrible bright red hightops he bought last year while shopping with a friend. Sollux, once they were ready to go, grabbed on some typical casual wear, sparking a short-lived debate on why Captor made such a big deal about his clothes.

"KK you're arguing with me. I thaid none of that, remember?" Karkat growled, glaring at him from his spot against his wall. He was right, he agreed not to argue with him. Damnit… "Now stop bugging me about thith alright? We're going to enjoy today and have fun on our date. Understand?"

"Who the fuck said I ever wanted to date you anyway? Or even be with you?!" Karkat was arguing again, he knew it, and Sollux rolled his eyes. "God. At _least_ take a shower first." Karkat closed his eyes, sticking by his argument. He didn't even notice Sollux pinning him to the wall until he was stuck glaring at him in an embarrassed shock.

"Who thaid you wanted to be with me?" Sollux chuckled, resting his forehead on his boss'. Not even attempting to move. It was intoxicating, his bad scent, the warmth he seemed to constantly radiate, his self-control was already slipping… By the time his lips ghosted over the other's, Karkat snapped, closing the distance himself. Sollux grinned against his lips, pushing Karkat back against the wall as he separated. "I think we both already know that anthwer."

* * *

Dumbfounded, Karkat sat by as Sollux took his shower, finally giving in to Karkat's refusal to leave with a wrank douchebag. He was silent, glancing out the window. His mind couldn't get that kiss out of his mind. Sollux was right. Naturally, Sollux was always right. Smug prick.

"Hey." Karkat was too focused on the window at the moment, just trying not to think. It took Sollux a few more tried before Karkat finally snapped back with an annoyed grunt. Sollux changed again, this time wearing a light black and yellow jacket and black jea-holy fuck he decided to wear skinny jeans too.

Karkat wasn't staring. Especially as he turned around to grab his wallet. Shut up.

"My other clotheth got thoaked. Thtupid Shower." Sollux glanced back to his blushing date and grinned, pretending not to notice. "Anyway, there should be a good diner within walking distance. The weather's nice so let's get going." Karkat rolled his eyes, following him out the door. The 'good diner' Sollux mentioned was a place they had both been to multiple times. The food was excellent, but the place was packed, too. They sat somewhere near the back of the restaurant, and for the most part had a decent meal. By the time 8 o'clock rolled on, Karkat was considerably calmer.

Walking along, Karkat really had no idea where the hell Sollux was taking him. Maybe he was going to lead him to some stereotypical gang and sell him for profit, who the fuck knows? They were walking though, so either Sollux forgot his wallet (which they both knew he hadn't) or it wasn't that far away. It was so quiet, walking along one of the less-crowded streets of Boston. While Karkat took his own time researching tourist spots here, he never really went sightseeing.

Before they knew it, Sollux had pulled him into some old movie theatre. It was like stepping back into the nineties or something, seriously. Sollux went to buy tickets for some movie while Karkat spent his time taking in the environment, staring at the bright red carpet, and seriously old movie chairs by the halls. The concessions caught his eye next, he could really go for some popcorn and a nice romance movie right now.

Obviously, Sollux knew that, too. Finished paying for the tickets, he dragged Karkat over to the concession stand to get a large tub for the two of them. Karkat made Sollux pay for the food and demanded their tickets, to look for the right room. If he was really going to make Karkat go along with this date thing then he had better be really fucking prepared for it.

Sollux just chuckled as Karkat grabbed the tickets greedily. Second theater, for… the Five year Engagement? This got out of theatres a while ago, didn't it? Maybe this is one of those second running places… Hm, good find. Finding their seats wasn't that difficult, Karkat insisted that they sit somewhere near the middle, but not around other people. Unfortunately, they were pretty much the only ones watching the movie anyway, so there goes that restriction. People just don't appreciate art nowadays.

All throughout the movie he could tell Sollux wasn't watching the fucking film. Of course he isn't watching it, though. He hates these kind of movies, so why did he chose this one?

Obviously to fake some romantic skill, of course. Naturally, he was _this_ close to falling asleep. If there was a bigger ass in this universe right at that moment, it was some alternate form of him who would have totally fallen asleep given the chance. But he didn't, so Karkat didn't bother complaining. Besides, he was really liking the movie, so that held his main focus.

So there were a little more inappropriate jokes than he would have liked (scratch that. A LOT more than he would have liked) but the amazing ending really made sitting through all that worth it.

He was still rambling about the movie by the time they were walking along to wherever Captor had decided to take him next. It sucked that they couldn't take the popcorn with them, but Sollux said it would get in the way, so whatever. The sun was up once again, meaning the temperature was even worse.

They made it to their next location before Karkat noticed his sly as fuck moves. Sollux had been holding his hand the entire walk over. Aww… how cute, right? No. Fuck no. "Now how on god's green earth did _this_ happen?"

"What can I thay, I am a thly bathtard." He agreed wholeheartedly. And would have taken his hand back, but Sollux's death grip was beyond powerful, he just gave up on ever having his hand free again. It's not like he minded, (I mean yeah, he kind of did, but…) the whole PDA thing was so above Karkat nowadays. He just stuck with his own story of being pressured into this date in case anyone asked. No one did.

Sollux had taken them to some fair they had set up in residential areas just outside Boston. The walk wasn't that long, but he did let him rest at the nearest bench while he bought tickets.

He came back with a two daily pass stickers to get them on all the rides they wanted. Oh hell yes!

* * *

Four o'clock hit them really quickly, they spent most of their time on the rides, and checking out the shops, and now finally they just had the Ferris wheel to ride before they left. Sollux insisted, he said it would help add to something or other, Karkat didn't give a shit. Sollux ended up almost vomiting twice, so they spent quite a long time just resting before this. Karkat was even gracious enough to rub his back and hold his hand until he felt better. Isn't he such an amazing guy?

The answer is yes. Yes he is. And now they were getting on the Ferris wheel and getting strapped in, listening to more bullshit safety instructions. They didn't ever make it halfway to the top before shit got awkward. Karkat's destroyed guard coming back to bug him. After the pirate ship he told himself to enjoy this. After the Ring of Fire, well… He told himself to sit down before he puked up lunch.

Hell, Sollux even got him on that STUPID tunnel of love ride, just because it was cheesy as fuck. That was hilarious though, they managed to get a picture of them both obviously faking some stupid fairytale kiss, which Sollux swore he would always hold dear to his heart. He stuck in in his wallet, too.

It was quiet now though. They were just staring out to the rising scenery, sitting straight up and not even talking. Sollux finally broke, he couldn't handle the awkward bullshit anymore. "Man, thith wath fucking amaing."

Karkat gave a slight laugh, still refusing to move. Sollux made the choice for him, resting his arm behind his head casually. "Yeah, it was fun."

"We're not through yet KK. We thtill have dinner to sit through after all." Karkat groaned, leaning against the other slightly.

"Can't we just order a pizza and watch some stupid movie at my place or something? Where are we even going, anyway?"

"Nope. Not telling." Sollux was more than happy to drape his arm over his shoulder. "I'll give you a hint though. We'll have to take a cab there."

"Lovely." Karkat let out a sigh, just staring out at the scenery. Ferris wheels are nice, but not really that thrilling compared to all the rides they've already been on. Still, the view from the very top was amazing. Sollux wasn't spoiling the moment with his usual assholish self, either. Right as they were at the top, the ride stopped to let out some more passengers, giving them a combined minute or so just sitting there. "So my mother's having another child."

Sollux gave a confirming hum, pulling the other close as they started moving again. He would never admit it, but he used to have this major fear of heights. Maybe that's why he was being so quiet? Hm. Karkat kept talking though.

"She wants me to visit in a few months. Says she wants me to be there for Carmine's birth."

"Hm. So, road trip then?" He chuckled, but only getting the incredulous look in response wasn't what he had expected.

"Yeah, Captor. I'm going on a road trip across the Atlantic ocean, all across Europe, and all the way to Russia. Wanna come along with me? We'll have to both figure out how to grow gills but to at least we have a few months first, right?" Sollux gaped at him a little before getting it together, literally wiping that dumbfounded glance off his face. Good, it didn't look good on him anyway.

"Sure KK, we'll have to stop by Turkey and get some of those amazing chocolates, too." Back to being smug.

"Idiot."

They managed to make it to dinner right in time for the reservation, thank god. While he wouldn't be clear with where they were going, he was pleasantly surprised to see the familiar beach area they passed. Good memories, there. Sollux pulled out all the stops for this dinner, a fairly fancy location by the beach. ("Wow Captor, you're just pulling out all the stops today, aren't you?" "Yeah, shut up and enjoy it.")

After an amazing steak dinner, the two were pretty damn exhausted. They did spend all day together after all. Sollux pulled them to a grassy area outside, much to Karkat's complaints.

"Sollux, I'm fucking tired, man. What are we still doing out here?"

"You'll see."

Giving a huff, Karkat leaned against the other, too tired to complain about his taking his hand captive again. Whatever. They were just sitting there, staring out at the water. About six now, and the sky was just starting to change. They sat there, listing to the soft sounds of the waves and watching the sun, slowly setting behind a canvas of pinks and oranges. There wasn't a single ripple on the shore, and it was just them.

Just them… Two people hopelessly trying to pull some kind of romantic aspect from something so clichéd and over the top, just like they had done all fucking day. Now they were just gazing out at the water, holding hands in their silence. He would have worried more about them, but he was stuck in the jittery fluffy feeling these kind of situations ALWAYS leave a romantic bastard like him in.

Why did he have to agree to this? Why did Sollux have to be so pushy? Why was he so in love with him…? Yeah, thanks for making this ten times more cheesy, _**jeez**_!

"Thith wath really over the top, wathn't it?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Okay, now was the time for him to really freak the fuck out. They were just in the elevator to Karkat's suite. He knew Sollux wasn't that kind of person, but trauma has a funny way of coming back and pretty much messing every single thing up. He played it cool at first, but by the time they were at his door Karkat knew he was gripping his hand way too tight for comfort. Why was Sollux not even mentioning anything about it though? He didn't even seem to notice.

Standing by at the door, Sollux even yawned, making Karkat jump. Still no response? Really?

"Thith wath amazing, KK. Thankth for not freaking the fuck out about it all." Sollux let go of his hand, still not saying a damn thing. It… It was calming, actually. Really calming. "Now to end off thith totally lame date right." Oh fuck freaking out again. Sollux acted quickly, cupping his chin to make them look eye to eye. And just like that, their lips met. A perfectly sweet, kind of short, kiss.

Perfect. Oh god why was that so perfect? Backing off, Sollux smiled down to him, innocently. "I'll be over at noon tomorrow. We can spend the whole day just hanging out and watching TV or something." Karkat nodded without even realizing it. And just like that, Sollux walked off, back towards the elevator.

And he was gone. Nothing bad happened. Why was he even worried about that anyway? Well, obviously, because of that whole Trent fiasco two years ago, but…

He needed to tell Sollux about that. He needed to spend more time with him, and...

Karkat needed to stop fearing the inevitable. He was in love with Sollux Captor; he probably has been for a long, _long_ time.

Why did he ever deny that?

* * *

**Yeeeaaah…. I kind of overdid it, didn't I? Anyway, that was fun to write!**

**It's one of my headcanons that Sollux is REALLY romantic, and he tries his best to show it. He did a damn good job of it today IMO.**

**DawnAtSky**


	20. No room for a pillow fort? Maaaan!

**MOG! Hehehe, sorry guys. School's been really sucky lately. So I've been busy. But hey, maybe this will tide you over. ;) Anyway, yeah it has been a while since I've updated. I'm so sorry guys! Thank you so much for all the reviews! I mean seriously? Holy crapola! I love you guys!**

**BTW, Naricaptor was correct! (Mostly.) Dawny Abettor is an old name for my trollsona, Dawnii Abetor. So you still get a cookie.**

**Also, 20 chapters, WOOO!**

* * *

Your name is Sollux Captor and you think today's the day you finally just give up. KK doesn't want you; he's made that perfectly clear. But at the same time he definitely hasn't, from what Strider calls a raging man-boner vibe he's got from this whole situation. Yeah, you don't understand it either. What you do understand is Karkat doesn't want to be with you for some stupid reason. Even though NOT being with him is driving you crazy.

Speaking of Strider, it was a weird occurrence to wake up with him in your bed. You can't remember anything from last night, but your sore ass gives you enough of a clue as to why this is. It was awkward waking up and making him breakfast, but you seem to have dodged a bullet there. So a one-night stand with your drinking buddy and pretty close friend? Yeah, that's cool. Whatever.

What isn't cool is that you've got work today, and you are not that experienced with concealing a limp. Yeah, that's gonna suck.

You considered calling in sick, but KK wouldn't like that one bit. Hell he'd probably come get you during lunch to make sure you get your project done.

UGH FUCK! The patch! You NEED to finish it today, or KK will have your ass on a silver platter. Shit. Well, better spend the morning walk practicing your non-limping skills. You'll need it. You were doing pretty well until your phone rang. Of course you thought it was Karkat bugging you, saying not to be late. Yeah _right_…

"Hey there Sollux!" Great… John.

"Thomething up Egbert?"

"Ohhhh yeah. Something's up. Something big!" He has that devious tone in his voice again. Just wonderful. "But I'll talk about that later. So how is work? How's that whole thing with you and Karkat going?" You almost stop completely. Why was he asking about that? Why does he even know about that? Did KK tell him or something?

And at that moment you remember who your drinking buddy's best friend is… Oh.

"Uh… It isn't? Honestly he's constantly giving me mixed signals."

"Haha! He usually does. What, are you throwing in the towel so soon?"

You can't answer him. Luckily some noise from the road blocks out any attempt to answer with a few loud cars honking as they pass. Damn drivers.

"Well he'll come around. Anyway, about that _one_ thing…"

"That one big thing you just mentioned. So what's up?"

"What's up?! What's up? Dude, you don't even remember? And here I was doing a favor here and pretending it just didn't happen. For Karkat's sake, of course." …What about Karkat? "How about this: We'll let that whole thing slide… Buuuuut…"

"What do you want?"

"Well you see, Vriska's gonna be moving in tomorrow, and…"

* * *

Giving a sly grin, Sollux pulled out a certain picture from his pile. He'd been meaning to hang this up, but just hasn't found the perfect spot for it. John was planning quite a bit of shit with this photo. But apparently he took pity due to Karkat's begging. Still, he almost gave up on him. If it weren't for John's lame-ass blackmail, and him having to spend all day doing ALL the work to move her in that day, which was a few months ago, they wouldn't have had that amazing date. They wouldn't have had so much fun during Operation Battlefield either.

… At least he wouldn't have. God, the look on his face was priceless! He had to thank Dave for helping to set all that shit up, man. A+ quality material.

He wound up staring at that same picture for at least half an hour. Just such perfection in this blurry-as-fuck image. Having some proof of their drunken makeouts though? Yeah, that was worth it. John shouldn't have blown up the picture though, now it's all pixely. No matter. He sure as hell was surprised when he recognized it. Vriska got a picture of his shock, too… fucking bitch. And made sure to send it to John to at least get SOME satisfaction out of their failed prank.

Oh. Hey, it's noon already! Well, it's not like KK would mind it if he was a little late. Sollux spent all of five minutes ordering pizza before deciding on an outfit… Naturally, it was just his grey slacks and that one old t-shirt he liked. The one with the Gemini symbol. He was fairly certain KK had a shirt like this one too, right? Ehh, it doesn't matter.

Sollux didn't even bother with shoes, he just walked over with his fuzzy socks on. This was going to be a relaxing day god damnit! He wrote up the check for when the pizza was sure to arrive and headed right over. KK was probably already up and pacing around his suit or something. Like usual.

They both had work tomorrow, so they couldn't stay up all night like he would have hoped, building some immature pillow fort and curling up together in a pile of blankets, but hey, one could dream, right?

Yeaaaaah no. Not after yesterday's date. Pillow forts are bomb but Sollux has done enough overly cheesy shit for one weekend.

Karkat's door was unlocked, an unfortunate habit from his old place. He'd really have to get him to lock his door eventually. Getting robbed sucks, man. "KK, are you here?"

He only received tired grumbling from his room. Sollux shrugged and left the check somewhere close. He also closed and locked his door like the good little concerned friend he was. Karkat was half asleep in his room, curled up in his egg chair and an old quilt. Sollux remembered that quilt well; it was something his mother started for her second son, which was a miscarriage unfortunately. Karkat never liked talking about it.

That was around the time they started chatting pretty much daily. Karkat was much more of a douche back then. Oh my god was he ever a huge douche. He has, fortunately, left that part of his past behind.

Leaning against the chair, Sollux indulged himself on seeing the amazingly adorable image of his… what even were they now? Friends? Boyfriends? He didn't even fucking know. He had to ask Karkat that one, after they talk. This time their 'talk' wasn't going to be bogged down with lame excuses. He's going to throw everything on the table and be completely honest with him. About everything he knows, and probably talk to him about what all happened too.

If he doesn't immediately kick him out of his life forever, then they'll talk about their relationship. And only then. KK doesn't deserve someone who's going to lie to him; he needs someone who will be there with him.

It's kind of a risky move. He doesn't give a shit though, this is his best friend after all.

But first thing's first. Clearing his throat, Karkat stirred awake, glancing up to him tiredly. "_What?_ Fucker, I a_l_most fe_ll_ as_l_eep again."

He cracked up, turning the chair back to him. Sollux graced his obviously annoyed afternoon behavior with a soft peck. "What'cha gonna do when the pizza geth here then? Come on man, get dressed. Meet you on the couch to discuss the movie marathon."

They spent the whole day together, being lazy assholes and watching cheap movies together while enjoying some pretty shitty pizza, and eventually soda Sollux had to go fetch. He grabbed a few beers, too, but not enough to get completely drunk. It was pretty amazing, watching their stupid movie choices (and eventually random shit on TV. Sollux couldn't stand watching another romcom for at least a _month_! Naturally, he was lying. For Karkat's sake.)

So, lightly buzzed and tired and full of some half-ass meal Karkat cooked for dinner, they enjoyed some relaxing small talk together on the couch. KK was so relaxed, not yelling or scolding him or anything, it was exactly what they needed. Both of them.

As the sun set, Sollux let out a sigh, turning off the TV. Well… Time for what he's kinda been dreading… "What, you bored of stupid animal planet shit already?"

"They need to have a bee week. Like, seriously man. They have a shark week, so why not?" Sollux chuckled, only earning a snide grin. "But no, there's actually something we should talk about…" He tried to stay as relaxed as possible.

"Alright then… What is it?"

"I heard about what happened to you two yeath ago…" He tried to be as blunt as he could.

He was expecting some kind of fight. Some kind of seriously emotional freakout or something. He was pleasantly surprised.

"I know. Strider told you."

If this was some shitty cartoon your jaw would have dropped. But, thank god, it wasn't. They were adults and could handle adult situations in a mature fashion. "Uhm… Did he tell you?"

"Yeah. This morning." Karkat sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was pissed off about it before Sollux showed up, and sure he may have been aiming to yell and scream his head off about it today, but Sollux was fessing up. That at least deserved a calm response, right? They ended up mulling over everything in an awkward silence before Sollux finally spoke up, adjusting his glasses as a nervous habit.

"I'm sorry… I should have asked you directly."

"I wouldn't have told you anyway. It's fine." Karkat sighed again, glaring up at the ceiling. "Pretty fucked up, huh? Stupid jackass." He shrugged, curling back up against Sollux. He didn't want to talk about it anymore. Never again, but Sollux was at least honest about going to Dirk for all this info. "I got pretty messed up by it, too. I… I should be to one apologizing."

Nerves suck. Sollux managed to chuckle a little spouting out an "its fine," without even thinking of it. Karkat didn't seem to appreciate that one, but if anything he hadn't moved. Sollux really dodged a bullet there; he'd have to thank Strider somehow. For now, they went back to watching TV, still curled up together on the couch. It was almost an hour before they even moved. Sollux was just coming back from the bathroom, noticing Karkat curled up in the blankets. Obviously stressed. "Hey, uh… Something up?"

"Why?" Huh? Sollux didn't get it. At all. "That was fucked up and all, but you could have lied or something, you know." Oh. He grinned, shaking it off before joining him back on the couch. Karkat only seemed to tense up more.

"Well, how could I be a good partner if I kept that big of a secret from you? That's even more fucked up than doing." He shrugged, carefully wrapping his arms around Karkat. The crab was resistant to it at first, but he allowed the contact. "It wasn't right. I care about you too much to lie to you like that."

"Why are you even bothering? You should have just stayed with Feferi or something. At least she wouldn't push you away for so long over dumb useless reason like I did."

"Well, I'm a selfish prick, and a stubborn jackass. Feferi wath jutht a… phathe, you know? It's way different with us, KK." That got his attention, bright eyes staring up him in a strained curiosity. It was hopeful. "Sure, we're just friends now, but I don't want that." He moved some hair from his boss's face, continuing. "I want more. More than a fling, more than sex, more than _anything_ you've had with Dirk. I'm the selfish prick KK. It is me, and it's always been me." Karkat looked so surprised by that, even if it's always been really obvious from the start. "And you pushed me away because you were unsure about everything. I get that KK… But I'm not going to give up; I'm too stubborn for that."

"Yeah…I know." A snappy comeback? Well that's hopeful. Sollux grinned, pulling the other into a light hug.

"So… Are we thtill friendth?"

"Well... We'll see."

* * *

So it wasn't the most direct answer, but a week passed them by quickly. The cell started a new project, and like usual, they spent their days together. Dates ended up being their usual meals and that trip to the theater a few days ago. Now they were just home, curling up on the couch together like usual. It felt like Karkat was asleep when Sollux started talking again, mumbling about how he wouldn't hurt him, how this was so right. How much he loved him…

So when half-asleep mumbling started to return some of the statements, he couldn't help but smile.

"What's so wrong with this then KK?"

"Nothing."

"You want me to leave?"

"_Fuck_ no."

"I love you..."

"...Я тоже тебя люблю."

"Будь моя?"

"…"

Karkat sat himself back up, still straddling the other as he tried to wake up. And Sollux probably would have asked why, but asking why is for people not getting kissed right about now, and not just the soft pecks they've been giving over the course of the week. It's for people not lip-locked in some of the most passionate, sleepy-sloppy makeouts from Karkat yet. Fuck yes. Those people are missing out, man. Except not because this is a thing he was not ever going to share. Fuck those people, this was all for him.

Karkat wasn't holding back, he wasn't pushing away or freezing up or anything. Hell, he was controlling it. Actually… This was _almost_ as amazing as their first kiss. No hesitation, no resistance. Eager, if anything. Yeah, this was pretty good, too. Their tongues swirled together, and with a low moan escaping he decided that, yeah, fuck that first kiss, nothing was more amazing than that right then. **Nothing**.

That is, until they kept going further, and further, and further...


	21. A lifetime with him

OKAY!

Surprise! An early Christmas present to you guys!

A shitty chapter!~~

Yeah sorry for not updating in… What, over six months? Ehe…

Sorry, I'm **not abandoning **this fic, guys, I still have a little bit more to add, geez!

So yeah, enjoy. BTW just a warning, there might be a few things that might be triggering(?), mostly the mention of a stillbirth, and an attempted suicide. Nothing too major.

And lots of chatlogs.

And the use of the 2nd person for the whole chapter. Sorry, I've been so out of ideas with how to go about writing this again so I just opened up Zenwriter and blurbed a lot of this. BUT I have a good idea of how to continue to the next chapter, so goodie me!

AND ALSO I should add, I use a kind of crappy translate thing, sorry about grammar with the Russian, guys!

Anyway, thank you always for all of your support, I love you guys!

* * *

Sitting by on the airplane, you just got way too impatient. It's time to troll the stupid forums again and call on more idiot's inabilities to comprehend rational thought. Like usual. Ah to be 15 and not have anything else to do on a plane ride back to America. It was nice, visiting Kursk again, but mother just has a long history of annoying the fuck out of you and dad's so overbearing it's painful. He sent you to stay with a cousin for a few weeks before he came back to the states himself and you had to go back to school after a relaxing/boring summer break.

It's a tough regimen, but mother perfers Russia, she prefers her homeland. You prefer that one person you consider a friend who you barely talk to anyway, and the other douchebags at your school you would rather not facilitate with. But you still prefer them. Enough said.

Rubbing your eyes, you consider skipping the forum prowl for a well-timed plane nap. No, you're tired, but jetlag will ensure that you get plenty of sleep when you get home. Signing in, carcinoGeneticist was once again on the attack. You typically kept up with the Minecraft forum, answering questions to newbies and ranting to other cyber-bullies, outsmarting trolls that PMed you, and wrote back a few actually decent people.

Hmm. You didn't normally check the personal forums much, too many people complaining about their stupid emotional problems and their need for an endless stream of attention.

Not many of the threads interested you, as usual, but there was this one.

**twinArmageddons : hey anyone have 2ome adviice for an iidiiot?**

Psh. Idiot is right, this self-proclaimed idiot types like a tool. Well the forum is rather recent, might as well read it and see why this guy can't think of creative world designs, or doesn't know about Creative Mode.

**hey anyone have 2ome adviice for an iidiiot?**

ii've been notiiciing iit a lot but at certaiin poiint2 ii can thiink at fiifty miile2 per hour, but at other2 iit'2 liike fiive.

iit'2 cray. liike ii try to concentrate but ii can't and ii ju2t get iinfuriiated and then my miind come2 up with more iidea2. liike my braiin can't 2top and iit know2 iit can't 2top 2o iit keep2 tryiing over and over.

but duriing my 2low tiime2? ii can't get my2elf two thiink right.

_(did this guy seriously just use two in place of to? What a douche.) _

ii 2uddenly don't want to do anythiing. or thiink. ii get horriible migraiine2 and 2ometiime2 get real 2iick.

ii don't know what to tell my folk2. ii thiink ii'm lo2iing my mind. ii have to tell 2omeone before ii flip out and ju2t try to eiither overthiink my2elf to iin2aniity or 2tart doiing 2ome 2eriiou2 damage two my2elf when thiing2 2low down and the 2elf-depreciiatiion ju2t overflow2 wiithout me wantiing to do anythiing about it.

look ii know thii2 ii2 the kiind of forum people 2kiip but ii'm at the end of my rope riight now, iit'2 the end of the fa2t part and yeah.

ii diid 2ome re2earch on iit my2elf but ii really doubt iit'2 what ii'm thiinking iit ii2.

2o yeah. any adviice doucebag2? 2hould ii talk to liike a doctor or 2omethiing about thii2?

[twinArmageddons]

You gave it a good re-reading before just sitting there in your seat wondering about the possibilities. Only one thing comes to mind. Bipolar disorder. Yeah the whole manic-depressive thing is a typical response but this _does _sounds a hell of a lot like that. Should you really reply to this idiot? He's done the research. He probably knows just how much of a complete ass he's making himself sound, maybe he's got it all figured out himself. Well, the curiosity got the better of you. Reading the thread once more, you open up WebMD. And take a look for yourself.

Not much to say, besides this guy should at least speak to a therapist about this. Even if it's a school therapist or something.

You were just about to type up a response when your mother sends an e-mail.

Сына я просто хотел сказать, заботиться о себе, хорошо? Patiricia будет любить быть с ней нового братика, когда придет время, и я всегда очень рады видеть вас. Спасибо за всегда быть такой замечательный сын, я люблю тебя.

(Son I just wanted to say take care of yourself, alright? Patiricia will love being with her new baby brother when the time comes, and I am always so happy to see you. Thank you for always being such a wonderful son, I love you.)

Like usual, mom's obsessively reminding you of how a WONDERFUL SON you are, and how happy Patiricia will be to have her amazing brother Karkat when she's actually born. Wonderful. You go ahead and wait on responding to her. Maybe for a few days, if you can. Right now you should respond to that thread before you forget about it. No one else has replied yet. Might as well.

**RE: hey anyone have 2ome adviice for an iidiiot?**

YEAH, FIRST OF ALL, YOU TYPE LIKE A MAJOR TOOL.

THAT SHOULDN'T BE TOO UNEXPECTED THOUGH, AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FIRM GRASP ON THE ENGLISH TRAINWRECK CALLED GRAMMAR. YOU MIGHT BENEFIT FROM LEARNING SOME NEW LANGUAGE THOUGH. WHO KNOWS IT MIGHT BE JUST WHAT YOU NEEDED.

AS FOR YOUR EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS, HERE'S MY OPINION ON IT. YOU'RE AN IDIOT.

OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, DID YOU EVEN PROOFREAD WHAT YOU TYPED AT ALL OR IS THE MANIC PHASE JUST MAKING YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL RIGHT NOW.

DO YOU ALWAYS CONFUSE PISS FOR APPLE JUICE YOU DIMWIT? OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. MAYBE IF YOU JUST PULLED THE STUBBORN SPIKED DILDO OUT OF YOUR ASS YOU WOULD SEE THAT. YOU HAVE SOME MAJOR EMOTIONAL ISSUES AND AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, YEAH I'M JUST GONNA SPIT OUT WHAT EXACTLY I'M SURE WE'RE BOTH ASSUMING, IT'S BI-POLAR DISORDER. BAM.

YOU HAVE TIMES WHEN YOUR THOUGHTS ARE DOWNRIGHT *MANIC* AND OTHER TIMES WHEN YOUR MIND CAN'T KEEP UP AND THAT MAKES YOU FEEL *DEPRESSED.* MANIC-DEPRESSION, PROBLEM SOLVED.

THOUGH I'M NOT THE PERSON TO GO TO FOR A REAL DIAGNOSIS. THAT'S NOT EVEN MY AREA OF EXPERTISE, WHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I SPEND ALL OF MY TIME ON A *MINECRAFT* FORUM OF ALL PLACES?

GO SEEK HELP. PARENTS, A DOCTOR, A THERAPIST, EVEN IF IT IS A SCHOOL THERAPIST, FUCKING *ANYONE.* JUST BUCK UP AND TALK TO SOMEONE.

DON'T TRY TO *FIND* SOME DESPERATE JUSTIFICATION FOR YOUR OWN MENTAL HEALTH TO BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION, YOU DIMWITTED BAFOON. GO GET SOME GODDAMN HELP.

[carcinoGeneticist]

You only wait for a few seconds before you realize that the plane's going to be taking it's only stop in around three hours. Might be a good time to take a nap now? you have the means to. You only give a moments glance to your long-winded response before rolling your eyes at the screen and signing off.

Nothing else you can do right now. So you let the quiet airplane lull you into a calming sleep after putting your tiny ass notebook safely away. No need for stressing yourself out before having to deal with the Maryam's for a few infuriating weeks.

You nap, and even though it's a short nap you wake up to find a stupid response from the two jerk on the forum. Naturally he wouldn't respond like a reasonable adult. Who could blame the guy though.

* * *

It's been about five months since you came home from your visit to Russia and that jerk who was asking for advice isn't actually that bad. You contacted him again afterwards and kept on his case, until he inevitably told you he went already. After a little while you got his trollian ID, which you should have guessed was the same as his forum name.

You'd see him on Minecraft once or twice and you'd say hello and ask how he's doing. And he seemed to be alright. Yeah, you could kind of consider him a friend? Like some weird anon kid that you've been consistently keeping tabs with.

He told you he went, and it was bipolar disorder, and he started on medication for it after a while. You just berated him then and went about chatting about a bunch of shit.

He bugs you about coding more than anything. You post anything even close to programming related and he's on that forum like fly to honey. He's a real jerk about it, but you suppose he has that right. You kind of suck at it anyway, and he seems to be pretty fucking good. Like you would admit to that.

TA-as you call him-isn't that bad outside of the forums and Minecraft though. You're minute skype chat ended with you bringing up your parents and he asked you to stick around, actually interested in your life. He thought it was weird how you always brought up the english language like it was your second one (which it is) and actually assumed you were german for some stupid reason. Nope!

TA's had his own problems lately. His girlfriend has been hinting at maybe leaving him, and he's been concerned about that. You tried to offer relationship advice but somehow you let it slip that you've never actually been in a relationship so he doesn't take it. Like that was really something he could base how trustworthy or not your advice is. How stupid.

TA stays up late just like you even though his medication sometimes makes him go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. Your insomnia is nothing to laugh about either, so you tend to stay up with him. You only like a state apart apparently, but he's wanted to go to a certain college here. You haven't thought about which one you want to go to yet, but you'll handle that later.

It's nine already but you've really been down all day, something this whole week has been complicated and dad had to take the week off to fly to his wife in Kursk just to make sure things were okay with Patiricia.

* * *

... You finally stopped crying. Patiricia didn't make it...

You were going to have a new baby sister.

Were.

You didn't want to, but it was just too temping to talk about it with him. Hell you helped him out of a lot of situations by now, maybe he could help you?

**carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]**

CG: HEY FUCKWAD, YOU DIDN'T PASS OUT IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER OR ANYTHING, DID YOU?

TA: oh look my favoriite diip2hiit wiith hii2 u2ual 2appy friiendly bull2hiit.

TA: buzz off man today ii2n't a good day.

CG: IT REALLY ISN'T. BUT THAT'S BEYOND THE POINT AND FUCK IF I'M NOT SURPRISED AT YOU TURNING DOWN A SHIT FLINGING CONTEST OF WITS, BRAINS, AND SARCASM.

CG: WHAT'S UP?

TA: you wouldn't really care. you're ju2t an a22hole who helped me 2ee that iit2 better two go 2ee doctor2 when 2hiit ii2n't healthy.

TA: 2o why do you bother even doiing thii2 2hiit anymore leave me alone to be pathetiic on my own.

CG: I SAID WHAT'S UP, WHY WOULD I ASK IF I DIDN'T REALLY CARE?

CG: LOOK, YOU AREN'T THE ONLY BASTARD THAT WISHES THEY COULD JUST CURL UP INTO A FUCKING BALL AND DO ENOUGH DESTRUCTIVE THINGS TO THEMSELVES UNTIL SHIT GOT BETTER SO LET'S JUST BE OPEN ABOUT EVERYTHING AND GET SHIT FUCKING BUSINESS OVER WITH.

CG: SO WE CAN MOVE ON TO OUR OWN HAPPY *OH-LOOK-A-MOTHERFUCKING-BUTTERFLY* LIVES.

CG: GODDAMN IT THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR INVOLVING MYSELF IN SOCIAL INTERRACTION, ISN'T IT?

CG: WELL FUCK.

TA: you really haviing that bad of a day.

TA: 2ound2 liike iit to be hone2t.

TA: what happened wiith you you're u2ually telling me to perforate my dick with a grilling fork by now?

CG: SOMETHING I REALLY DOUBT COULD BE LESS TERRIBLE THAN TODAY'S MELODRAMA WITH THE OVERZEALOUS CODING FANATIC DUALITY GUY.

TA: ii have a name you know.

CG: SAME.

TA: iit'2 2ollux. don't 2pread iit around.

CG: KARKAT. SAME.

TA: no 2hiit?

TA: weiird name2 all around.

TA: alriight KK 2o what happened?

CG: KK? IS THAT SOME SHITTY KNICKNAME OR SOMETHING?

CG: AND YOU FIRST.

TA: YE2.

TA: and fiine.

TA: my giirlfriiend fiinally left my 2orry a22.

Oh. Well you guess that's kind of bad. But really you haven't been that good today either. Especially since finding out about Patiricia this morning...

TA: your turn.

CG: I DON'T KNOW. LOOK IT'S REALLY FUCKING BAD AND I WASN'T REALLY GOING TO TELL ANYONE, I JUST WANTED TO GET MY MIND OFF OF IT, ALRIGHT?

TA: diid 2omeone diie?

CG: YES.

TA: who?

You didn't respond for a few minutes, it was hard to even type. But he was apparently patient, and not telling you "iit'2 okay don't 2ay iit iif you don't want two" or something stupid like that. You finally just send your response.

CG: MY BABY SISTER.

TA: diidn't you tell me you were an only child?

TA: oh

* * *

It's been about two years since that trip to Russia where you first encountered Sollux Captor. Ever since Patiricia's death he started talking to you more often. Nowadays you talk to him every day, maybe get a few texts from the guy, and give a lot in exchange. You really want to meet him face to face one of these days; he's kind of the best friend you've ever had. You're finally getting closer to finishing high school, too, and you've both arranged to eventually meet and enjoy a congratulatory celebration thing. You're really excited but he's never even shown you his real face. You're not much to look at either, your eyes freak some people out, and you're short and grumpy and now have a bitching piercing that you still enjoy thoroughly.

He says his hair's dyed with these thin white tips over his black hair, he says people either love or hate the new look but he hasn't had a bully problem since middle school. You agree that middle school is the worst idea ever and it's a horrible place.

After the stillbirth your mother moved back to the states, and she's a dedicated stay-at-home wife who consistently dotes on you day in and day out. Sollux says it's cute how much you complain about something so typical. Mom's just so overprotective now, though. She's been thinking about the college plans a lot lately. For you. I mean seriously mom, this is kind of something you had to do for YOURSELF!

Sollux's had some ups and downs lately, three months ago his ex girlfriend, who he's still very close friends with, tried to kill herself due to emotional problems and difficulties with schizophrenia. Sollux has been so shaken up about it, but she's alive, albeit kind of a ghost with how she acts apparently. Sollux still has troubles moving on from it.

You've been helping, as far as he always says. You two started a collaboration program assistance thread series on that dumb forum but you both hardly check that damn thing anymore. Sollux still plays Minecraft, too. Which is fucking ridiculous to you! You've moved on to RPGs, like the Tales series, and Final Fantasy. And a bunch of other innovating games that you just really, really love. You've sort of developed a passion for this shit, especially the design and writing.

He says that that's cool and all, but it's just not really his _thing_. He liked coding. A lot. It's infuriating, and really obnoxious, but he loves it. He's such a masochist, oh god.

After a while your short conversations turned to daily discussions, to skype calls, to a few meetings after a month or so. Things were pretty good. He got a new girlfriend recently, which was kind of nice, and you had finally been on a few dates. This one girl Jade is really amazing.

Things seem to be going almost too well.

* * *

It's been five years since first meeting this douche. He's been back to discussions about college recently, and after a long three hour bitch fit about it, you decided to go to the same school, and probably room up together. And you've been having some rather awkward situations go by in your chats... It's really difficult, you've just really kind of wanted to kiss your best friend.

You've never cared about sexuality, but he's just seriously attractive to you. At least a few of your chats recently have ended really awkwardly, with you logging off quickly with a new 'problem' to deal with.

It's been going on for quite a while, you think you really like your best friend. Okay so that's really obvious to you but most likely not to him, right?

* * *

Six years now, and why the FUCK did you let that asshole into your life?

You've kind of been wanting him HARDCORE since moving in to the dorm with him, but he's ALWAYS with Feferi. They're almost always making out **right** in front of you, or pretty much any time. THIS is how things end up? The occasional hanging out and tough college classes and stupid guys having sex every time you just want to come home and sleep?

You've really had trouble with your relationships lately. Let's just say things with Jade ended in a mutual respect for never attempting to date again, and you've really been questioning yourself. It hurts seeing him with her all the damn time, and you've been trying to figure out why that is.

Your stoner friend is kind of good at helping things seem clearer though. So is the blind hottie you are only really attracted to out of spite. But a couple of times with that polyamorous mind-fuck party and you decided maybe you should change roommates. And then you come home to them in YOUR bed. He's on top of her and you can't see her at all but you know they're way deep in that shit.

You haven't gone back to the dorm yet. You don't want to. Your best friend is disgusting and you hate him and the worst part is that you wish it was actually you underneath that skinny form, and not that fishy bitch who's actually really nice and sweet and would be WAY better for him anyway.

You wonder if you'll ever forgive him. School's been really dragging you both down, but he's still done all of this bullshit. Even if he takes some time out of his day to be there for you, and to hang out with you. FUCK IT!

You still talk to him online after moving out. But only online, you refuse to tell him where you live now and to let you hang out with him.

* * *

That stops at the end of year six and around the time you get out of college. By the time year seven rolls by you wish you could still forget about him. At the same time your boyfriend is being really affectionate right now. It's so rare, you're smiling even though you know it's just because he's drunk off his ass and too tired for sex.

You should probably trust his affection more, but it's hard to do that. He hasn't said a lot of I love you's but he did today. You can let this slide, you kind of love him too after all.

* * *

Then year eight…

You don't like talking about the end of year eight.

* * *

Year eleven. Giving an annoyed grunt, Karkat rolled out from under the usual wiry arms trying to keep him in bed. That obnoxious alarm wasn't going to shut itself off though, was it? Nope, it definitely wasn't.

"KK leave it. Don't make me get up yet." His voice is raspy and grainy from how tired he is. It's adorable. You nuzzle him a little, and he takes that as enough incentive to think you'll let him sleep in. Fuck no!

Damn, it's been quite some time already. Eleven years since he met Sollux Captor. His best friend, his college nightmare, that guy with the really nice ass... Your nerdy subordinate.

"We have a meeting in an hour, get the fuck up or I'll make you sleep in your suite for the next month."

"Love you 'two' KK."

Your partner. Boyfriend, whatever the fuck you two could call it. Dating? Shit this is giving you a headache. You try waking him up once again, but _lucky him_ the phone's interrupting you. He should be happy for that. You recognize the number almost immediately. "Father?"

"Сын, твоя мать погашения в течение нескольких недель. Вы все еще подходили к свидетелями рождения?" (Son, your mother's due in a few weeks. Are you still coming up to witness the birth?)

* * *

wow sorry, hope you weren't looking forward to this shit or something.

Merry Christmas!


End file.
